Tour of Austria

Stage 5: Bleiburg to Deutschlandsberg, 150.3km/93mi

By Cathy Mehl

Dutch rider Nick Nuyens (Rabobank) won the fifth stage Thursday at the 62-nd Tour of Austria.  With one kilometer to go Nuyens attacked and outfoxed Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) and Egor Silin of Katusha.  It was a slight uphill finish which suited Nuyens, a former winner of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in 2006.

Ricardo Ricco (Ceramica Flaminia) won the jersey on the stage two mountaintop finish and has kept it since then.  He holds 1:44 over Emanuele Sella and Sergio Pardilla of Carmio Oro NGC.

Team RadioShack’s Tiago Machado took 11th on the stage, followed by our young Russian Ivan Rovny in 14th just two seconds back and Ben Hermanns at 27-seconds off the pace.   For the classification Machado remains the best-placed team rider in fifth.  The Shack still leads in the Teams classification with three stages remaining to race. 

There are no more large climbs to race in the Tour of Austria with flat stages on Friday and Sunday.   A flat time trial is sandwiched in on Saturday to possibly change the overall results before the race conclusion.

Top Ten Results

1              Nick Nuyens (Bel) Rabobank       3:37:37                   

2              Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD - Neri                                

3              Egor Silin (Rus) Team Katusha     0:00:04  

4              Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team              0:00:12  

5              David Gutierrez Gutierrez (Spa) Footon-Servetto             0:00:15  

6              Emanuele Sella (Ita) CarmioOro NGC      0:00:17  

7              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                      

8              Sergio Pardilla (Spa) CarmioOro NGC                        

9              Stefan Denifl (Aut) Cervelo Test Team   0:00:20  

10            Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram         0:00:22

Team RadioShack Results

11           Tiago Machado (Por)

14           Ivan Rovny (Rus) Team Radioshack                           

15           Ben Hermanns (Bel) Team Radioshack   0:00:27

32           Matthew Busche (USA)  0:00:49

41           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:01:03  

53           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)  0:01:23

71           Daryl Impey (RSA) 0:01:59

73           Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa)

General Classification after Stage 5

1              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia     18:45:58                

2              Emanuele Sella (Ita) CarmioOro NGC      0:01:44  

3              Sergio Pardilla (Spa) CarmioOro NGC                        

4              Morris Possoni (Ita) Sky Professional Cycling Team           0:04:13  

5              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack 0:04:32  

6              Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Team Katusha      0:04:48  

7              Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:05:33  

8              John Lee Augustyn (RSA) Sky Professional Cycling Team                0:05:46  

9              Stefan Denifl (Aut) Cervelo Test Team   0:05:50  

10            Ruslan Pidgorny (Ukr) ISD - Neri                0:05:56

Team RadioShack on General Classification

11           Ben Hermanns (Bel)   0:06:19 

15           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:07:12              

26           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:12:11 

54           Daryl Impey (RSA)   0:26:38 

57           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)   0:28:03    

66           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:30:15