A dogged Enrico Barbin was in the spotlight in the demanding Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey queen stage.

The Bardiani puncheur chased the leading duo of Rebellin (CCC – Sprandi) and Durasek (Lampre – Merida) for the entire final climb, crossing the finish line in 6th position with a time loss of 1.29, improving last year's 10th place.

Barbin was passed in the last km by Pauwels (MTN) and McCharthy (Tinkoff – Saxo), concluding his effort afew seconds later. Enrico Battaglin who was in the first chasing group behind Barbin in the first part of the final climb, fell back in the last steep sector and he finished 21th, 3.25 behind Davide Rebellin.

”I had targeted this stage since the first experience of last year and with my teammates we have done a superb work since the bottom of the final climb," Barbin said. "When Rebellin and Durasek, together with Parra, attacked with 8km to go, I didn’t follow them because we were far from the finish and we hadn't reached the steepest part. When I understood it could a decisive attempt, I moved just one km later with McCarthy and we chased with a good pace as were only 30 seconds behind with 3km to go. Unfortunately I suffered from cramps in the last 2km and I struggled a lot. Now we look to recover and await stage 6 with the last summit finish. My goal is do better than today."

”I’m pleased with Barbin’s result," sports director Mirko Rossato said. "He made a good improvement comared to last year. He raced with a positive attitude, trying already with 7km to go to chase Rebellin and Durasek. He was close to catching them but cramps in the final sector didn’t allow him to make the last decisive push. However he didn’t finish so far away, a spot in the top-5 in the final geneal classification is still possible."