Tour of Austria

Stage 7: Podersdorf, ITT, 26.3km/16.3mi

By Cathy Mehl

Two Team RadioShack riders landed in the top six at the individual time trial in Podersdorf for the seventh stage of the Tour of Austria.  Spanish rider Markel Irizar bested teammate Tiago Machado by two seconds to claim fifth place on the stage.  The stage winner was Joost Posthuma of Rabobank who took a full eleven seconds out of Patrick Gretsch of HTC-Columbia.  Riccardo RIcco (Ceramica Flaminia) held on to his race lead, but after a horrific accident with a parked motorcycle, the Italian rider’s lead dropped to only 38-seconds ahead of Sergio Pardilla (Carmio Oro NGC).

The Shack’s Machado slipped into 4th place with teammate Ben Hermanns now in ninth.  Team RadioShack leads in the Teams classification as well.

Although Ricco finished the stage, he was bleeding heavily from the nose and a gash on the leg and was whisked away to the hospital to determine the extent of his injuries.  At the time of publication, it was not known if he would return to the final stage on Sunday.

Top Ten Results

1              Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank             0:30:47                   

2              Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia         0:00:11  

3              Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Team Katusha      0:00:40  

4              Stijn Devolder (Bel) Quick Step 0:00:46  

5              Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) Team Radioshack   0:00:47  

6              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack 0:00:49  

7              Hayden Roulston (NZl) Team HTC - Columbia      0:00:52  

8              Raivis Belovhosciks (Lat) Ceramica Flaminia          0:00:57  

9              Laszlo Bodrogi (Fra) Team Katusha           0:00:58  

10            Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:01:05

Team RadioShack Results

20           Ben Hermanns (Bel)  0:01:35

38           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn ) 0:02:07

43           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:02:15

45           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:02:20

71           Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa)  0:03:20 

114         Daryl Impey (RSA)  0:05:13

General Classification after Stage 7

1              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia     25:02:36                

2              Sergio Pardilla (Spa) CarmioOro NGC       0:00:38  

3              Emanuele Sella (Ita) CarmioOro NGC      0:01:49  

4              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack 0:02:31  

5              Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Team Katusha      0:02:34  

6              Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:03:48  

7              Stefan Denifl (Aut) Cervelo Test Team   0:04:17  

8              Morris Possoni (Ita) Sky Professional Cycling Team           0:04:28  

9              Ben Hermanns (Bel) Team Radioshack   0:05:04  

10            Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank              0:05:07

Team RadioShack on General Classification

16           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:06:42 

24           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:11:36            

50           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)  0:26:00     

56           Daryl Impey (RSA)   0:29:01           

57           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:29:28