The Lotto Soudal rider outclassed Spain’s Juan José Lobato of Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizanè and Ireland’s Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe, completing the 194.3 kilometres stage-four route from Balikesir in 5 hours 21 min 38sec.

Bennett, who won stages one and two before finishing second in stage three, retained his lead in the general classification.

His overall time now stands at 16:25:42, giving him a 24-second advantage over nearest challenger and Bora-Hansgrohe team-mate Felix Großschartner.

Austrian Großschartner, ranked 13th today, is two seconds clear of third-place Colombian Jhonatan Restrepo Valencia of Team Manzana Postobón.

But today belonged to Ewan, who almost two months after taking his first International Cycling Union WorldTour victory of the season at the UAE Tour, also on stage four and also in an uphill finale, proved to have an excellent ratio of power, weight and speed in the climbs.

He had to dig deep to edge out Lobato and did not leave a chance for Bennett to come across.

It is the victory the Australian was looking for to build his confidence ahead of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

"My team's done a really great job all week and we've committed every day to go for the win and I haven't rewarded them with the win, but I'm happy today to get that one," Ewan told Eurosport.

"It was a super-tough finish. 

"I can't remember the last time I went that deep to win a race.

"I was on the wheel [of Bennett] and I was already 100 per cent. 

"I was waiting for him to go and he popped a bit, and I knew I had to go straight away to catch the guy in front and get the win. 

"Luckily, I had enough to do that last sprint."

Today's stage was the longest of the 55th Presidential Tour of Turkey.

Tomorrow's will see the peloton take a 164.1km route from Bursa to Kartepe.