The Presidential Tour of Turkey returned to the hills on Friday, and Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) rode to victory atop the category-one climb that capped off the 184km stage in Selcuk.
Pello, 25, came to the line a mere three seconds ahead of Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez. His Caja Rural teammate, Heiner Parra, finished third.
Behind those battling for the stage win, Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) came through 18 seconds behind, with three others, in sixth place. This was enough to move the 27-year-old Croatian into the GC lead, 21 seconds ahead of Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice), who had led the race since his stage 3 win on Tuesday. Rebellin finished 19th, 1:01 behind the winner. He is now second overall, while Bretagne-Séché Environnement’s Eduardo Sepulveda sits third.
Friday will offer a 165km stage with two categorized climbs, but a relatively flat run-in to the finish in Izmir.