Kristijan Durasek turned the Tour of Turkey on its heads when he managed to take the leader's jersey off Davide Rebellin's shoulders in the final summit finish of the race.

"This morning I knew that this was the last chance I had to take the celeste jersey," he said. "It was a big chance. I knew it was the last GC stage, and I knew that I had to try because I had nothing to lose. I did the best I could and it went well.

"Today it was a quiet day in the first part. I must say that with this ream I can ride serenely right up to the final stages of the race without worrying too much about the earlier part. Today, even in the finale I had luxury support which kept me in the first positions in a final part that had a treacherous curve at 8 km from the finish line and subsequently in position for the final climb.

"The fight for the stage victory was decided by the first attacks. We never slowed down. Once I noticed that Rebellin was in difficulty, I understood that the best thing to do was to rider consistently as fast as possible, avoiding to follow the attacks and earining as much as possible in the overall standings.

"I was not surprised that Rebellin was dropped. I was surprised when he won the first stage. I thought it was too hard for him. I wasn’t sure if I could beat him today, but I had nothing to lose, and it was successful.

"I was just worried about GC. I thought that Rebellin would go with the Astana guy, but I saw that he was in the 2nd group, and it was clear that, if he wasn’t on my wheel, he was in trouble. When I saw that, I decided to go. 

"I didn’t have an attack plan. The race took the direction it did, the climb was very hard, and there were so many attacks from other teams that I didn’t even need to attack. That’s how I won.

"I am happy to have won this jersey, and I hope to keep it until the final stage. The team is at my disposal and I will try to benefit from the confidence they have given me.

"I’ll just try to keep the jersey. Tomorrow is a hard stage, but not so hard that it will be possible to make a difference in GC.