In a brutal mountain-top finish at the Tour of Turkey, XDS Astana outperformed their direct WorldTour rivals for a 2026 WorldTour license Picnic PostNL on the punishing Akyaka climb.
A mountain-top finish on Akyaka (8.8 km at 9.93%) was going to be pivotal in shaping the general classification at the Tour of Turkey. With relegation battles intensifying, Picnic–PostNL, Uno-X, and XDS–Astana fielded strong lineups in pursuit of crucial UCI points.
Heading into the final climb, Frank van den Broek had already expended 2,242 kilojoules, averaging 12.68 kJ/kg/h over 2 hours and 43 minutes. Just before the ascent, several potential stage contenders including Anton Schiffer, Mario Aparicio, and other climbers crashed in the wet conditions. XDS Astana continued to drive the pace, and the group thinned rapidly, with Nicolas Vinokurov contributing a strong pull alongside steep-gradient specialists Wout Poels and Harold Martin Lopez.
With 6 km to go, Poels launched an attack. Up front with the two Astana climbers were Picnic PostNL’s Frank van den Broek and Guillermo Juan Martinez, adding extra tension to the already dramatic climb. In the end, Poels capitalized on his steep-climbing prowess and secured his 25th professional victory. Harold Martin Lopez took second, while Picnic PostNL riders finished third and fourth. With four stages remaining, Astana stands to gain 350 UCI points from the GC alone if current positions hold.
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Due to the rainy conditions, the watt outputs weren’t at their peak. Poels averaged 5.9 ᵉW/kg for 31 minutes and 26 seconds. Abel Balderstone, who won on a similar climb in last year’s Clásica Terres de l’Ebre, finished fifth with 5.74 ᵉW/kg.
XDS Astana is actually going to pull it off lol
Will we ever get the watts from Tour of the Alps?
Picnic is cooked. Astana netted 723 over them today between Turkiye, Romandie, and Famenne Ardenne, and cut the gap to only 160 points. If they don’t have a strong showing in the Giro they are as good as relegated. We need an updated gap tracker chart with Cofidis, Picnic, Astana and Uno-X.