The “King of the Mountain”, Daniele Mensi won today’s third stage at the Hauser Kaibling mountain ahead of Austrians Hermann Pernsteiner and Daniel Geismayr, who defends his overall lead in the 2017 Alpentour Trophy. The Dutch National Champion Hans Becking came in fourth ahead of Italian Cristian Cominelli. In the women’s Angelika Tazreiter won the stage ahead of overall leader Christina Kollmann. Third is Margot Moschetti (FRA) ahead of Carmen Buchacher (AUT) and Bettina Janas (GER).
Full gas!
After drizzly weather in the morning the Italian crossed the finish line under blue skies after 2:16:44h at the Planai Stadium in Schladming. “Today I felt great again, yesterday my legs felt so heavy”, said a content Mensi. He had tried to race for a win in yesterday’s stage, however, wasted too much energy in the beginning, which he regretted at the last climb. “Today I tried to stay calm and do everything possible to get a stage win – I’m so happy it worked out!”, the triple King of the Mountain classification winner at this year’s Alpentour said.
The Austrian team riders Hermann Pernsteiner and Daniel Geismayr arrived at the finish together again. Pernsteiner said that his legs had felt heavy at the start still, but that he knew that he had to push hard at the first climb. “Tomorrow’s stage is not long and I won’t be able to make up a lot of time, so I attacked three times. In the end I could catch up to Daniel Geismayr and we rode and worked together well”, he said.
Overall, Geismayr defended his lead ahead of tomorrow’s time trial onto the Planai. He has a gap of 2:06min ahead of Alban Lakata; Hermann Pernsteiner is in third (+2:39 min) and Daniele Mensi is in fourth (+7:52 min) ahead of the German Moritz Milatz (+9:50 min).
Queen of the Mountain – and stage win for Tazreiter at Alpentour
Angelika Tazreiter claimed the Queen of the Mountain victory at the Hauser Kaibling peak today.„Today was a real tough day, I attacked so hard at the sprint for the Queen of the Mountain classification. After that I thought that I’m done, but I wanted to do take it home and I did”, said Angelika Tazreiter after a race time of 02:42:47h.
Christina Kollmann said that she had to fight today, “I’ve had a really tough day! Half-way up onto the Hauser Kaibling I just exploded and I didn’t have anything left to drink. That’s why I had to fight really hard and luckily I was able to make up some time in the downhill. The last seemed like it would end and I’m happy that I was able to contain my gap.”
Overall, Kollmann defended her lead and has a comfortable gap of 11:16min ahead of the time trial tomorrow. Angelika Tazreiter is in second overall ahead of Margot Moschetti (FRA, +38:27 min), Janka Keseg Stevkova (SVK, +55:22 min) and Janine Schneider (GER, +56:45 min).
Tomorrow’s 14km/1300vm time trial onto the Planai starts with the first e-Bike Challenge up onto the Planai Mountain at 9am. After that the Alpentour Trophy field of riders will start in reverse order of their overall ranking.
Top Results
Elite Men:
1. #22 Daniele Mensi ITA / SOUDAL LEECOUGAN RACING TEAM / 1st KOM at 11:41:25 / 02:16:44
2. #15 Hermann Pernsteiner AUT / CENTURION VAUDE / 2nd KOM at 11:41:52 / 02:16:50 +00:00:06
3. #3 Daniel Geismayr AUT / CENTURION VAUDE /3rd KOM at 11:41:52 / 02:16:50 +00:00:06
4. #1 Hans Becking NED / CST Sandd American Eagle MTB Racing / 4th KOM 11:43:07 / 02:17:39 +00:00:55
5. #33 Cristian Cominelli ITA / SOUDAL LEECOUGAN RACING TEAM / 6th KOM 11:43:08 / 02:17:40 +00:00:56
Elite Women:
1. #115 Angelika Tazreiter AUT / Polizei SV Graz – Bigtime Maishofen / 1st KOM at 12:01:43 / 02:42:47
2. #105 Christina Kollmann AUT / Team TEXPA-SIMPLON / 2nd KOM at 12:06:09 / 02:44:18 +00:01:31
3. #121 Margot Moschetti FRA / CST Sandd American Eagle MTB Racing / 3rd KOM at 12:11:00 / 02:53:24 +00:10:37
4. #110 Carmen Buchacher AUT / Velocity Sports Lab / 4th KOM at 12:11:01 / 02:54:12 +00:11:25
5. #118 Bettina Janas GER / Sportograf.com / 6th KOM at 12:14:53 / 02:57:26 +00:14:39