It took six years as a professional for Sebastian Berwick to celebrate the final victory of a stage race. After second-place finishes at the Herald Sun Tour in 2020, the Tour of Alsace in 2023, and the Tour of Hainan in 2023, the Brisbane climber was finally able to stand on the top step of the podium at the 2026 Tour of Turkey, where his consistency (second place on both mountain finishes of this year's course) allowed him to edge out Ivan Sosa and Kamiel Bonneu, despite his health being far from perfect over the last 48 hours.

"I've been really sick for two days. After the second mountain finish, my health deteriorated, but I managed not to show it. I can never thank my teammates enough: they did everything possible to help me hold the jersey and I really needed their support," revealed the twenty-six-year-old Australian after the awards ceremony.

"This is a victory that means a lot for my career right now and it gives me a lot of confidence for the second half of the year. I've always believed I could win because I always come to these races convinced I can win," Berwick continued, having had a decidedly convincing 2026 so far.

"I think I've made enormous progress this year: in Oman I was just seconds away from the podium, at Milan-Turin I performed well competing against top-level riders, and now I've won here, closing this first part of the season in great style."

Decisive in securing the second victory of his entire career was his ability to emerge in the final stages of races, where he quite clearly showed he had more brilliance than his direct rivals.

"Mountain finishes have always been where I perform best. I've always worked on this type of effort and therefore delivering performances like this is something that comes naturally to me."

This quality allowed him to direct the general classification especially along the brutal Feslikan climb, where, starting 2.5 km from the finish, he progressively widened the gap on his opponents, rewarding himself with the leader's jersey for an extremely intense effort.

"It was the most intense of my career so far and I think I felt it so strongly also because of the altitude that in the last ten minutes really drained me."

Nothing compared to the effort made three years ago to secure what until today was his only professional victory: the third stage of the 2023 Tour of Hainan, the very race from which Berwick flew directly to Turkey.

"Things didn't go well in China and I was surprised I couldn't perform well there: I thought I could definitely finish in the top five, but in the end that wasn't the case. I simply think I didn't have it in me."

A completely different story in Turkey, where, surprising even himself, Berwick felt stronger and stronger with each stage.

"I arrived with new motivation and a very competitive team, but I was still very surprised to find myself with such good legs. I improved day after day: the first two stages really got me back on track, on the third I started to feel very good and so I continued to have improving sensations until the sixth, after which I could do nothing but grit my teeth until the end."

Having secured the victory that had eluded him for two and a half seasons, Berwick will now take a break before pinning on a number again and embarking on new adventures, including perhaps the Tour de France, which will start from Barcelona next July.

"Now I'll take a week off and then we'll discuss the matter with the team, deciding what the calendar will be and the best way to approach the upcoming races, among which I hope the Tour will be included. I'll probably do an altitude training camp, but actually I live in Andorra so my apartment is already at altitude."

In case of participation, Berwick could say he has competed in all three Grand Tours during his career, given his previous appearances at the Vuelta España (2021) and Giro d'Italia (2023, where he finished third on the Rivoli stage won by Nico Denz), races where he raced with the jersey of a team (Israel Premier Tech) where he had an experience that undoubtedly helped him get to where he is today.

"It taught me to be much more resilient. Bouncing back from not getting renewed with them and signing with Caja was probably the best thing that could have happened to me, it really strengthened my character and, looking at how this season is going, I don't think I could have made a better choice."

Here the Australian rider found the ideal environment to transform his desire for redemption into results and definitively showcase abilities that in this 2026 have made him the rider with the most UCI points on the Spanish team's roster, a squad where the only skill in which Berwick has yet to distinguish himself is the language.

"My Spanish is improving but I probably should apply myself a bit more. I'll try to find a tutor, because I'm not particularly fluent and I need some help to be honest, but I'm still able to enjoy the environment," concluded the newly crowned Tour of Turkey winner, who in the coming months will certainly have the opportunity and time to apply himself on this front as well.