Tour of Austria

Stage 6: Deutschlandsberg to Laxenburg, 231.8km/144mi

By Cathy Mehl

With two stages to go in the Tour of Austria, Italian Ricardo Ricco (Ceramica Flaminia) still leads by almost two minutes to Emanuele Sella and Sergio Pardilla of Camino Oro NGC.   After several days of climbing the peloton of 128 set up for a mass sprint for stage 6.  HTC-Columbia rider Andre Greipel took his second stage win in the year’s race, after winning the overall in 2009.  He just beat Robert Forster (Milram) and Ben Swift of Team Sky.

Team RadioShack’s Fumy Beppu came up with the best sprint from The Shack riders, coming in three seconds off the pace while the rest of the group was another four seconds back.  Tiago Machado still holds fifth place on the GC and the Team leads in the Teams classification.

A break of four riders stayed away for most of the stage, being brought back by Greipel’s team with 12km to go, setting the stage for the sprinters.

This was the longest stage of the race, similar to the stage in today’s Tour de France, also won by a HTC-Columbia rider.  Saturday brings the time trial over 26.3km in Podersdorf.   It is a pancake flat profile that should produce fast times to shake up the classification.  The race concludes on Sunday. 

Top Ten Results

1              André Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia           5:42:54                   

2              Robert Förster (Ger) Team Milram                            

3              Ben Swift (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team                    

4              Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team Katusha                      

5              Nikolas Maes (Bel) Quick Step                     

6              Daniele Colli (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                         

7              Martin Reimer (Ger) Cervelo Test Team                                 

8              Leigh Howard (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia                             

9              Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank                                 

10            Simon Zahner (Swi) BMC Racing Team

Team RadioShack Results

25           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)  0:00:03

44           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:00:07

60           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)

64           Tiago Machado (Por)                       

65           Darly Impey (RSA)

69           Matthew Busche (USA)                                 

70           Ben Hermans (Bel)

86           José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa)

General Classification after Stage 6

1              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia     24:28:55                

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

3              Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) CarmioOro NGC         0:01:48  

4              Morris Possoni (Ita) Sky Professional Cycling Team           0:04:17  

5              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack 0:04:36  

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

7              Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:05:37  

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

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

10            Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukr) ISD - Neri              0:06:00

Team RadioShack on General Classification

11           Ben Hermans (Bel)   0:06:23

15           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:07:16

25           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:12:15

52           Darly Impey (RSA)   0:26:42 

55           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)   0:28:07

62           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)   0:30:15  

68           José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) 0:31:55