Michal Golas was the top finisher for Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team, finishing 9th on a tough mountain top finish at the 148 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey Stage 3 on Tuesday, from Tekirova to Elmali.
The peloton was destroyed ascending the final mountain, which averaged 10%, but the winning move was made with less than 8km to go on an 8% climb by Ivailo Gabrovski. Gabrovski expanded his lead to more than a minute in the final kilometers, while the rest of the peloton was shattered behind him. Golas was one of the few who could keep up.
Alexandr Dyachenko (Astana Pro Team) arrived 1'27" after Gabrovski, having tried to bridge with two other riders and catching and dropping Romain Bardet (Ag2R - La Mondiale) while attempting to do so. Danial Andonov Petrov (Caja Rural) was 3rd.
Marco Bandiera, who has been working hard for the team the past three days, including an extended period of time chasing breaks at the front during Stage 2, was in a break with five other riders on Tuesday. ony Hurel (Team Europcar), Karol Domagalski (Caja Rural), Leonardo Giordani (Farnese-Vini), Juan Pablo Suarez (Colnago) and Florian Vachon (Bretagne-Schuller) were with Bandiera in the break and had a lead of more than five minutes at one point.
Albert Timmer (Argos-Shimano) and Christopher Juul-Jensen (Saxo bank) attempted to catch the break, but failed. The break was caught with 17km to go, but not before patting each other on the back for their efforts.