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Istanbul - British sprint star Mark Cavendish, of the Omega Pharma team, won the fourth stage of the Tour of Turkey on Wednesday between Fethiye and Marmaris as Estonia's Rein Taaramae retained the overall race lead.
It was Cavendish's third stage win of the race after he took the opening two stages.
He followed up victories on Sunday and Monday by comfortably beating Argentina's Maximiliano Richeze of Lampre and his Australian team-mate Mark Renshaw in a sprint finish.
The 132km race was neutralised for a short while early on after heavy rainfall before a five-man breakaway opened up a lead of 3min 30sec on the peloton with just 11km remaining.
They were eventually reeled in as Taaramae, of the Cofidis team, retained the overall leader's jersey with a margin of six seconds over Adam Yates of Great Britain and Romain Hardy of France.
Friday's fifth stage will be a 183km ride from Marmaris to Bodrum.
Results
Stage
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR/Omega) 3h14:23, 2. Maximiliano Richeze Ariel (ARG/Lampre) same time, 3. Mark Renshaw (AUS/Omega) s.t., 4. Kristian Sbaragli (ITA/MTN) s.t., 5. Elia Viviani (Ita/Cannondale) s.t.
Overall standings
1. Rein Taaramae (EST/Cofidis) 12h46:31, 2. Adam Yates (GBR/OGE) at 6 secs, 3. Romain Hardy (FRA/Cofidis) 38, . Luis-Leon Sanchez Gil (ESP/CJR) 38, . Merhawi Kudus (ERI/MTN) 38
