Tour of Turkey has been shortened due to snowy conditions on the summit finish climb.
Tour of Turkey has been shortened due to snowy conditions on the summit finish climb.
Videos from the finish line show heavy snowfall has made it impossible to scale the full 16km final climb

Race organisers have shortened the queen stage of the 2019 Tour of Turkey by 5.5km due to heavy snow falling on the summit finish.

Stage five was set to conclude with riders scaling the 16km Kartepe, but will now only ride the first 10.5km.

The steepest parts of the climb, which top out at a gradient of 12 per cent, will not be affected.





The Tour of Turkey have said that Deceuninck - Quick-Step's team director Brian Holm and rider Eros Capecchi represented the teams and riders currently competing in the race as the decision was made to shorten the penultimate stage under the UCI's Extreme Weather Protocol.

Broadcaster Ned Boulting, who is in Turkey working on the race, tweeted a picture from the Kartepe, which literally means "snowy hill" in Turkish, showing the terrible weather conditions. He's said that icy snow is still falling hard and that fog has descended.

Deceuninck - Quick-Step first tweeted a video showing the view from the original finish line, and then updating their followers with the scenes at the new finish line, which was still being plummeted by snow.