July 9/08 4:22 am - Tour of Austria: Stage 3

Posted by Editoress on 07/9/08
 

Tour of Austria
Report by Martin Roseneder

The Austrian tour favourite Thomas Rohregger repeated with another strong ride after yesterday's 2nd place ride up to the Kitzbüheler Horn. He showed his climbing ability in today's mountainous stage that saw the riders go over five mountains: Rohregge also took the yellow jersey with a third place. "It's like a dream, I will wear the yellow jersey. For the next stages ... lots of work is in store for my team", says the professional rider of Elk Simplon. The stage saw the Ukrainian rider Ruslan Pidgornyy arrive only three seconds ahead of Robert Gesink (NED) and Thomas Rohregger. Vladimir Gusev came in 5th, Paolo Bettini 8th and Davide Rebellin 9th. The mountain jersey will be worn tomorrow by Giampaolo Caruso, Ruslan Pidgornyy will wear the points jersey. Gerhard Trampusch, arrived eleventh and earned the jersey of the best Austrian rider.

Rohregger: "We are going to fight for the yellow jersey"

Pidgornyy who finished the 2006 Tour of Austria in 2nd place, dedicated this stage win to his daughter, who is celebrating her sixth birthday today. He now sees himself as a big favorite to win the tour: "The team of Rohregger is strong, but the overall victory will be decided in the time trial on Saturday. If everything is as it should be, I should be able to make up the seven seconds to Rohregger and I am confident in my ability to outclass riders such as Vladimir Gusev." Rohregger is also very confident and is prepared for the time trial. "We will fight for the yellow jersey in the next two days and in Podersdorf I will do my best performance."

Glomser wins climbers classification up to the Großglockner!

Volksbank professional Gerrit Glomser won the prestigious title "Glocknerkönig." In Ferleiten Glomser and Rohregger were able to break away from the peloton and were fighting for the title of the "Glocknerkönig". Glomser won the classification in an exciting sprint with a climbing time of 47:18 minutes.

Tomorrow, the longest stage of the tour, from Lienz to Wolfsberg is 216.8 km.