Tour Of Türkiye 2026 Stage 4 Preview — 130.4km Flat Coastal Road From Marmaris To Fethiye Sets Up A Third Crabbe Sprint Win, Sosa's Equipo Kern Pharma Defend The Turquoise Jersey In The Heat
Wednesday 09:30 EEST, Marmaris. The 61st Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye rolls out of the Bay of Marmaris for Stage 4 with the GC card snapped open by Tuesday's Kıran summit and the points jersey already nailed down by Belgium's most consistent sprinter of the spring. Iván Sosa sits in turquoise at twelve seconds to Sergio Samitier and twenty-two seconds to Jonas Jégat after his solo on the 9km, 9.7 per cent Kıran wall — and on a 130.4km, near-pancake-flat run east along the D400 coastal road to Fethiye, his only job today is to cover the wheels of Tom Crabbe and live to fight Friday's Pamukkale GC pivot.
The course is the most straightforward of the eight stages. Flag drop 11:11 EEST in Marmaris's Atatürk Caddesi, neutralised roll-out 5km along the Datça road, kilometre zero at the Marmaris junction with the D400 at 11:18. The route then sticks to the coastal cornice all the way to Fethiye via Köyceğiz, Dalyan and Göcek — three sprint primes at 38km, 79km and 112km, two category-3 bumps either side of Köyceğiz at 41km and 58km, neither steeper than 5.4 per cent for more than 2km, neither expected to dent the bunch. Total elevation gain 870m, the lowest of the eight-stage race. The finish in Fethiye runs along the Çalış waterfront and into a 1.4km flat finishing straight on the Atatürk Caddesi promenade — the same line that hosted the 2019 Tour of Türkiye sprint stage won by Sam Bennett.
The Crabbe vs Dylan Groenewegen vs Luca Mozzato sprint-trio of the first two stages should reload exactly as before. Crabbe — the 22-year-old Lotto sprinter and the breakout name of 2026 with three wins from three sprint stages including the opening two of this race — has the fastest leadout train in the field with Jasper De Buyst and Slovak champion Erik Baška in front of him. Groenewegen's Jayco AlUla have been a beat slow off the final corner on both Marmaris stages but won the bunch kick on the final 200 metres of Stage 2 with the Dutchman second on the line. Mozzato (Team Polti VisitMalta) has been third twice, level on UCI points in the green jersey competition with Crabbe.
The wind is the swing factor. The 06:30 Türkiye Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü forecast has a 12-18 km/h south-westerly building through the morning along the gulf, gusting 22 km/h at Göcek between 13:00 and 14:30 — a near-direct cross-tailwind over the long inland stretch east of Köyceğiz that will give an aggressive team an opportunity to split the bunch in echelons. Equipo Kern Pharma sports director Manolo Azcona told TRT at sign-on this morning that defending the turquoise will mean "two riders in the front of every echelon, even if it costs the GC men a wheel" — the unspoken message that Sosa is willing to lose the points jersey to keep the lead.
The breakaway will be small. The category-3 climbs do not offer enough KOM points to drag a serious threat off the front, and with three flat stages remaining after today, the GC and points teams will not let a dangerous rider go. The line from Türkiye National Team sports director Adem Yamak is that the home squad will put two riders in the move "from kilometre zero" — Mehmet Kaya and Halil Doğan are the named pair, both with a stage-three breakaway day already in the legs. Expect a four-to-six rider escape established by 11:35 and a maximum gap inside three minutes by the first sprint at 38km.
The bookmakers have Crabbe at 4/9 for the stage and 1/4 to retain the green jersey through to Istanbul. Groenewegen 7/2, Mozzato 6/1, Marius Mayrhofer 12/1, Giacomo Nizzolo 14/1. The yellow jersey market is essentially closed — Sosa 1/8 to wear turquoise into Fethiye, the only realistic way he loses it today is a crash inside the final 3km neutralisation zone.
Race coverage live on TRT Spor 2, Eurosport 2 and GCN+. Live timing from procyclingstats.com from 11:11 EEST. Expected finish in Fethiye between 14:55 and 15:10. Thursday's Stage 5 to Bodrum projects another sprint, Friday's Stage 6 finish on the Pamukkale travertines is the final GC test. Cycling Lookout's stage report follows on the line.