Tour of Austria

Stage 4: Lienz to Glocknerking, 146.2km/91mi

By Cathy Mehl

Two mountain top finishes in the Tour of Austria brought the same results – Italian rider Riccardo Ricco won again on Wednesday’s stage 4 on top of the Grossglockner, earning himself the Glocknerking designation at the top of the climb.  Ricco retained his race lead as well, holding a solid 1:44 to teammates Emanuele Sella and Sergio Pardilla of Carmio Oro NGC.  Team RadioShack’s Tiago Machado was part of a chasing group that ran out of real estate before catching Ricco, settling for 6-th on the day and fifth on the classification.  Team riders Ben Hermanns and Matthew Busche hold the 11th and 14th slots on GC,  making Team RadioShack the leader in the Teams classification.

Many early attacks were put in before a group of 12 riders finally established a solid break.  But once the race headed up the Grossglockner, Ricco, Sella, Pardilla and Artem Overchkin (Katusha) broke away and formed a group that lead the charge up the famous climb.  Near the top Ricco saw his chance to slip away and claimed his second stage win in this year’s 62-nd Tour of Austria.    Ricco leads in the mountain and sprint classification as well.

Racing continues for another four days, with Thursday’s stage 5 at 150.3km from Bleiburg to Deutschlandsberg.  The all-important time trial is on Saturday.

Top Ten Results

1              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia     3:40:35                   

2              Sergio Pardilla (Spa) CarmioOro NGC       0:00:41  

3              Emanuele Sella (Ita) CarmioOro NGC                       

4              Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Team Katusha      0:01:08  

5              Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Androni Giocattoli              0:01:56  

6              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack                  

7              Morris Possoni (Ita) Sky Professional Cycling Team                            

8              Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:02:11  

9              Ben Hermanns (Bel) Team Radioshack   0:02:22  

10           John Lee Augustyn (RSA) Sky Professional Cycling Team    0:02:32

Team RadioShack Results

17           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:02:49

35           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:07:36

56           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)   0:11:46    

77           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) 0:16:22

80           Daryl Impey (RSA)                            

81           Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa)

General Classification after Stage 4

1              Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia     15:08:04                

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

3              Sergio Pardilla (Spa) CarmioOro NGC                        

4              Morris Possoni (Ita) Sky Professional Cycling Team           0:03:59  

5              Tiago Machado (Por) Team Radioshack 0:04:27  

6              Artem Ovechkin (Rus) Team Katusha      0:04:41  

7              John Lee Augustyn (RSA) Sky Professional Cycling Team                0:05:07  

8              Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Team Katusha        0:05:08  

9              Ruslan Pidgorny (Ukr) ISD - Neri                0:05:37  

10            Stefan Denifl (Aut) Cervelo Test Team   0:05:47

Top Ten Results

11           Ben Hermanns (Bel)   0:06:09     

14           Matthew Busche (USA)   0:06:40

29           Ivan Rovny (Rus)   0:12:04

53           Daryl Impey (RSA)  0:24:56

57           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)  0:26:57

67           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)  0:29:29   

71           Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa) 0:30:09