July 10/08 1:06 am - Tour of Austria: Barry 12th on GC

Posted by Editoress on 07/10/08
 

Tour of Austria
Report by Martin Roseneder

Two riders broke away at 32 kilometres: Tom Stamsnijder from team Gerolsteiner and Silence-Lotto's Olivier Kaisen. They built their lead up to more than twelve minutes, but seven kilometres from the finish line they were caught up by the peloton. The teammates of André Greipel did excellent work to set up the sprint for the stage winner. Greipel also won the 17th stage of this years Giro d'Italia, four stages and the overall classification of the ProTour Down Under Tour. "Every victory is great. It has been a demanding stage today, but my team has worked very well, "said the 26-year-old winner.

Second was Astana's René Haselbacher: "Over the last mountain classification, Griffener mountain, I realized Tom Boonen was having problems, so I chose to stick to Greipel. 200 meters from the finish line he started to sprint, and probably I waited too long, but it has been a great success for me!" The Austrians did very well on this stage: Right behind René Haselbacher finished Werner Riebenbauer (Arbö Wels Gourmetfein) 4th and Peter Wrolich finished behind Danilo Napolitano at 9th place.

Thomas Rohregger extended his lead

Thomas Rohregger (Elk Haus Simplon) was able to increase his lead by 2 seconds during the stage and now leads nine seconds ahead of Ruslan Pidgornyy (URK). Chris Anker Sörensen (DEN) is 3rd with a gap of 27 seconds. "In the whole it has been an easy day after the demanding three stages, but the last kilometres were very hectic", said Rohregger after the race.

Tomorrow premiere of the tour in Bad Vöslau

Tomorrow's stage is starting in Wiener Neustadt and will end, for the first time in the history of the Tour of Austria, in Bad Vöslau after 184 km. Then, on Saturday, will be the deciding time trial in Podersdorf (26 km).