Lotto Soudal's Australian rider Caleb Ewan won the 207-kilometer first stage of the 57th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye on Sunday.

Ewan, a member of the Belgium-based team, finished in 4 hours, 38 minutes and 5 seconds to claim his win.

Jasper Philipsen of Belgian team Alpecin-Fenix came in second and Kaden Groves of Australia’s BikeExchange-Jayco was third, according to the provisional results.

"Today was a first success but there will be plenty of opportunities to come. We knew we had to be in front during the fast final kilometers and so we did," Ewan said.

"The guys did an amazing job to drop me off exactly where I needed to be. This gives me a lot of confidence," he added.

Ewan said the climbing section of the route brought along some difficulties, however, he entered the final section of the stage strongly and managed to come atop.

He returned to a winning mood almost a month after his season was put on a halt due to sickness, a week before the Milan-Sanremo cycle tour.

There were multiple accidents during the first stage, including a serious crash for Spanish team Equipo Kern Pharma’s Danny van der Tuuk, who had to be rushed to the hospital.

A total of 167 racers from 25 teams competed in the first stage of what is the world’s only intercontinental cycling competition.

They covered 207 kilometers (129 miles) from the Aegean tourism hub of Bodrum in Muğla province to the beach resort town of Kuşadası in neighboring Aydın province, a scenic route in a region known for its rich history and mesmerizing natural beauty.

Fierce competition

The opening day of the race bore witnessed fierce competition, according to a statement by the tour organization following the conclusion of the first day.

Halil Doğan, a Turkish rider for Bikeaid, was the first one to attack from the gun and five others joined him to make Sunday’s breakaway, including Julen Irizar of Euskaltel, Jonathan Clarke of Wildlife Generation, Vitaliy Buts of Sakarya, Burak Abay of Spor Toto and Abram Stockman of Saris Rouvy.

As their advantage reached five minutes, the teams of the sprinters, mainly Alpecin-Fenix, Bora-Hansgrohe, BikeExchange-Jayco and Israel-Premier Tech got organized to maintain the time gap to about three minutes.

Subsequently, Lotto-Soudal sped up the tempo while approaching the 50-kilometer to go mark, where the deficit of the group of cyclists fell under a minute.

Racing for the two subsidiary classifications, Buts took the white jersey of the Treasures of Türkiye Sprints as he came first in the 87-kilometer sprint and grabbed five points in the King of the Mountains competition before the regrouping with 35 kilometers remaining.

Arkea-Samsic took control of the peloton up the 4-kilometer climb whose summit was located 29 kilometers before the end.

Therefore, Nicolas Edet, the winner of the climbers’ classification at the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, scored five KOM, just like Buts, but the Frenchman was awarded the red jersey at the benefice of the highest categorized climb.

Lots of action also took place in the downhill with Sean Bennett looking for glory within 20 kilometers to go and a few crashes happening at the back of the reduced pack.

The American from China Glory surrendered 5 kilometers before the line. Patrick Bevin of Israel-Premier Tech tried to escape for the second time, but it was eventually a bunch sprint in the coastal town of Kuşadası.

Arkea-Samsic gave a strong lead out to Nacer Bouhanni, but it was Ewan who came out of the box in perfect timing to beat Jasper Philipsen, one of the riders who went down, and Kaden Groves.

Riders ready for 2nd stage

The second stage will begin at 10:40 a.m. local time (7:40 a.m. GMT) Monday, along a 158.4-kilometer route from the ancient city of Ephesus to the Aegean coastal town of Alaçatı.

The eight-stage Tour of Türkiye spans a total distance of 1,303 kilometers and will culminate in Istanbul on April 17.

The racers will change continents at three different points – from Asia to Europe on the sixth day, returning to Istanbul’s Asian side in the later stages and then crossing to the metropolis’ European part again.

Six WorldTour teams are in the hunt for the title this year, up from three in the previous edition, along with 12 professional and seven continental teams.

The race is being broadcast live on TRT Spor Yildiz and Eurosport, while Anadolu Agency is among the sponsors of the global event.