Rebellin wins summit finish at Tour of Turkey

Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) laid down a commanding performance to win stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey atop Emali ahead of Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida). 

The Italian used his wealth of experience to soak up the accelerations from the Lampre rider in the final stages before launching the winning move with 100 metres to go.

Durasek hung on for second with Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) picking up third after a strong finish.

Rebellin leads the race by seven seconds with Durasek in second. Overnight leader Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep) finished in the main field, relinquishing the leader’s jersey after two straight stage wins.

The stage was always going to be decided by the final 10km-long climb, the first major test of the riders with overall aspirations at this year’s race.

That didn’t stop an early break forming with Marco Bandiera (Androni Giocattoli), José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Juan Pablo Valencia (Colombia), Samuel Spokes (Drapac) and Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka) establishing a three-minute lead over the peloton.

They were soon joined by a form-seeking Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo), Thomas De Gendt, Gert Dockx (Lotto-Soudal), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF), Youcef Reguigui (MTN-Qhubeka) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise).

With Cavendish certain to lose his overall lead, Etixx welcomed other teams to control the pace and Astana duly obliged as they led the race towards the first serious shake-up in the race.

There efforts saw the break reduced to just three as Brutt, Wallays and Reguiui ploughed a desperate path towards Emali.

The gap was down to a more manageable 30 seconds with 30 kilometres remaining and by the time the leading trio reached the lower slopes of the climb Wallays began to lose contact.

CCC Sprandi Polkowice moved to the front as they sought parity with Astana but it was Caja Rural’s Luis Mas Bonet who made the first serious move, darting clear after the second of two powerful accelerations.

This reduced the field to fewer than twenty riders and with the remnants of the break caught and dispatched out the rear the Spanish team tried to send Heiner Rodrigo Parra Bustamente clear once Mas Bonet had been reeled in.

Rebellin took no chances, and matched Parra Bustamente’s two attacks, the second of which brought the pair a 10 second gap. Durasek was present to the danger and bridged the gap as the chase group crumbled to less than a dozen riders.

The trio quickly established a thirty-second lead but Bustamente’s presence was short-lived and the Colombian was unable to cling to his companions as the gradient rose.

Rebellin appeared to be tiring inside the final two kilometres when he drifted onto Durasek’s rear wheel but the Italian was merely saving his energy for one attack. He responded to each of Durasek’s tentative surges inside the closing kilometre before launching his own move with 100 metres to go.

Full Results