Davide Rebellin relinquishes leader's jersey as Bilbao wins stage six in Turkey

Davide Rebellin saw his overall lead in the Tour of Turkey slip away as he struggled up the final climb of stage six into Selçuk, with Lampre-Merida's Kristijan Durasek usurping the Italian.

Caja Rural rider Pello Bilbao sprung a good attack in the final two kilometres to catch lone escapee Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), and then shot clear with 100m to go to take the win.

Durasek left Rebellin for dead as the 20-man leading group split to catch Lopez, with the 43-year-old eventually rolling in 42 seconds back on the Croatian.

With a five kilometre climb to finish the stage, teams were battling at the front of the pack to ensure their leaders were at the fore when the gradient kicked in.

Caja Rural and Lampre-Merida were active on the front, but it was Astana's Lopez who made the first move. Tinkoff-Saxo's Jay McCarthey joined the Colombian up the road but soon dropped back.

Then it was left to Caja Rural pair Bilbao and Heiner Parra to chase down Lopez, with the former the only one to bridge the gap.

Bilbao leapt past Lopez to take the win and Durasek followed 18 seconds later. Then the clock started to see whether Rebellin could hold on to the leader's jersey, but rolling home 41 seconds later he gave up 21 seconds in the overall standings.

Tour of Turkey stage six: Denizli - Selçuk (184km)

1. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Caja Rural, 4:38:36

2. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana, at 3sec

3. Heiner Parra (Col) Caja Rural, at 11sec

4. Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 14sec

5. Alex Cano (Col) Team Colombia, st

6. Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida, at 18sec

7. Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche, st

8. Lluis Mas (Esp) Caja Rural, at 34sec

9. Fabricio Ferrari (Uru) Caja Rural, st

10. Jay McCarthey (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo, st

General Classification

1. Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida, 24:21:34

2. Davide Rebellin (Ita) CCC Sprandi, at 21sec

3. Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Bretagne-Seche, at 32sec

4. Jay McCarthey (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 1m12

5. Alex Cano (Col) Team Colombia, at 1m30

6. Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN-Qhubeka, at 1m32

7. Mirko Selvaggi (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert, at 2m05

8. Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani CSF, at 2m08

9. Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto-Soudal, st

10. Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Torku Şekerspor, at 2m20