Stannard wins fifth stage and Kessiakoff extends his overall lead in 2011 Int. Osterreich-Rundfahrt
Sky Procycling team’s Ian Stannard won the fifth stage of 2011 Int. Osterreich-Rundfahrt on Thursday, July 5. Astana's rider, Fredrik Kessiakoff, maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in St.Johann/Alpendorf and ended in Schladming. The 24-year-old Ian took a total of 3 hours, 33 minutes and 50 seconds to cover the distance of 157.2 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Ian said, "It was fantastic, Getting a win out of a break group is a dream. I also profited from my track experience in the closing sprint. We all feel a bit left out here with the Tour de France going on so thought we'd better do
something and let everyone know we're in Austria."
Ian took his first victory of this season previously he took the third spot in British National road race championships and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in 2010.
Gatis Smukulis of HTC-Highroad was the runner-up and Stefan Denifl of Leopard Trek finished third, while Gregory Rast (Team RadioShack) was in the fourth place.
Yannick Eijssen (BMC Racing Team) was in good form and tried his best to take a lead ahead of four cyclists, but was unable to maintain his pace and grabbed the fifth place with a difference of 8 seconds, ahead of Christopher Sutton.
With 27 kilometres to go, a group of five cyclists made their first breakaway, Ian Stannard (Sky) was joined by the Stefan Denifl (Leopard Trek), Yannick Eijssen (BMC), Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) and Gregory Rast (RadioShack).
All of them worked together and build an advantage of three minutes over the peloton. Geox-TMC team increased his pace, but he failed and the five cyclists retained their pace, while still holding a advantage of 49 seconds. However, Ian increased his pace
and crossed the finish-line ahead of other cyclists.
Sports Director, Marcus Ljungqvist, said, "It was the perfect combination for the team having Ian in the break and CJ there if it came down to a field sprint. They worked together and were very smart and we're all delighted that Ian was able to win the sprint.”
Fredrik maintained his overall lead with a timing of 20 hours, 29 minutes and 16 seconds, while Mauro Santambrogio was the runner-up with a difference of 1 minute and 18 seconds.
Leopold Konig of NetApp was in the third place with a difference of 1 minute and 26 seconds ahead of Carlos Sastre Candil.
The next stage will start in Hainburg an der Donau and end in Bruck an der Leitha. All the riders will cover the distance of 155 kilometres.
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