Top 10 for Turner after strong team effort in Italy

Ben Turner fired to eighth place on the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia after a solid team performance in Italy.

Turner worked hard to battle his way back into the peloton after puncturing with 20km to go, with Josh Tarling, Lucas Hamilton, Kim Heiduk and Egan Bernal all taking turns on the front to deliver Turner to the bunch sprint.

A relatively flat 189km saw the Grenadiers work well in the peloton throughout the day, protecting GC hopes Bernal and Thymen Arensman, before coming into a chaotic finish in Lecce.

A couple of crashes marred the technical finish, and a puncture for Turner saw him chasing hard with two others to reach the peloton inside the final 20km. On reaching the main bunch after a momentous effort, the British rider was carried to the front by Heiduk and Hamilton to reach Tarling and Bernal.

Turner was delivered perfectly to the finish, and sprinted in the bunch to ninth place, while Bernal and Arensman were just behind to finish on the same time.

Reaction

Zak Dempster (Sport Director): “[Josh] is a strong boy. We actually saw Egan take some wind too as we were looking to give Ben an opportunity today. He had a puncture with 20km to go which was unlucky, but it’s good to see him get involved. We had Josh and then Egan pulled – it’s all hands on deck most days here.

“I think if you got into the city well you could set up the whole course. Josh is pretty strong but you can kind of bridge the roundabouts and go on with it from there. It’s key to get to the right point on time, and after that you set the whole final up.”

The INEOS Grenadiers were also in action at the Dunkerque Classique, with the brand new French one-day event acting as the lead-in to the famous 4 Days of Dunkirk stage race.

The team worked hard to animate the race, with Connor Swift hitting the front as the peloton briefly split as bad weather drew in.

With 32km to go Sam Watson was able to push clear on the day’s final major climb – the Notre Dame de Lorette – and opened out a small gap as part of a breakaway trio. However as the sprint trains re-organised the race came back together, with Pascal Ackermann (Israel Premier Tech) winning the bunch kick into Lens.