Omega Pharma Quick Step's Mark Cavendish won the opening stage of the 50th Tour Of Turkey.
A fast 141km stage which started and finished in the holiday resort of Alanya.had Martin Wesemann of MTN, Van Hoecke of Topsport, De Maar and Kal of the Turkish team taking an early lead of 4.45.
On a glorious day, that gap had dropped to 1.22 to a peloton featuring Mark Cavendish and Andrei Greipel with 53kms remaining.
An attack from Lotto split the peloton and reduced the time to the four leaders to 37 seconds with 42kms to go.
Heading twoards the Beauty Sprint in Alanya, the peloton caught the the escapers and it was Wanty's Frederique Robert who took the jersey ahead of Orica Green Edge's Leigh Howard.
Italian Mirko Tedeschi of the Fluo-Neri Sottol team made a break for it, attacking with just over thirty kilometres to go and taking a twenty second lead.
He was swept up by the peloton which had sprint trains moving up. Neri Sottol were one team who moved up with six kilometres to go.
Katusha and Astana were on the front as were Cannondale and Lotto Belisoll's Andrei Greipel before there was a crash with just under two kilometres remaining.
Belkin now hit the front, followed by Lotto and the battle for positions was on. Mark Cavendish came from absolutely nowhere and took the win in 3.15.44, by two bike lengths from Elio Viviani, Theo Bos, Bonazio and Van Staeyen.
Cavendish said to the Tour Of Turkey about his win: "I’m really excited to come here for the first time in the Tour of Turkey and win it . I wasn’t sure of my condition, I didn’t know whether I’d be OK or bad after more than one month off. It’s a great feeling. My team did an incredible job to keep me out of the wind and put me in good position.
"We have young guys in this team who went flat out and gave it a 100 pc and perhaps did too much a little too early but it’s part of the learning process. But I was in the top 6 in the finale, which is a good position to be in this kind of sprint. I managed to take a wheel and there was a little bit of headwind so I kicked out. I didn’t know what to expect, even if I did some sprints in training at home. Altogether I’m very happy with the way the team worked today. "