The dominance by the Italians continues at the Alpentour Trophy on day three. After a second place on Thursday, the Italian Daniele Mensi took line honours on the Queen Stage via the Dachstein mountain and the Italian overall winner from last year, Tony Longo keeps his race lead ahead of tomorrow’s time trial onto the Planai mountain ahead of fellow Italian Fabian Rabensteiner. Second and third today are the Austrians Alban Lakata and Hermann Pernsteiner, respectively.
Second place today for Alban Lakata.
Christina Kollmann paves the way for an Austrian overall victory in the elite women’s division.
The Italians at this year’s Alpentour Trophy are racing well and are dominating the top rankings – the first two stages saw four and five Italian racers, respectively, among the top ten and since yesterday Tony Longo, the event’s Champion from last year has been leading the general classification.
Tony Longo maintains his GC lead.
“Today I felt really strong, even though I rode almost the entire stage yesterday by myself and it was a really tough day. I didn’t risk a lot today and am very confident about tomorrow’s last stage”, said the 31-year old Tony Longo, who will be at the start of the time trial onto the Planai with a gap of 05:25 to Fabian Rabensteiner from South Tyrol.
The lead group get underway.
Today’s stage win went to Daniele Mensi (27), who was very content with his race. He had been riding in the lead group right from the start and at the second-last climb at around 50km he decided to attack. “I knew I had to give it my best shot”, he said of his attack. He then clocked in a race time of 3:05:09 ahead of Alban Lakata from Austria, the winner of today’s King of the Mountain classification.
Third today was Hermann Pernsteiner (AUT), who crossed the line with a big smile. After a disappointing stage two yesterday, when he was among the lead group who missed a turn, he had a great third stage. “I have unfinished business at the Alpentour Trophy, but I’m still young and next year I’ll be back”, the 26-year old said with a cheeky grin.
Kollmann builds her Alpentour lead
The elite women’s field once again was dominated by Christina Kollmann who will start tomorrow’s time trial as the race leader. Karen Brouwer (NED) was second today and Sharon Laws (UK) claimed the third position.
The Alpentour Trophy offers a daily evening entertainment programme with corresponding menu plans to its participants – after an Australian evening under the banner of the Crocodile Trophy and yesterday’s Flanders evening, the event’s home of Styria will set the scene for today. Tomorrow’s last stage will send the racers onto the 14km time trial climb onto the Planai in reverse order of the general classification. Race start is at 9am at the Planai Stadium.