Tour of Austria: Vandewalle wins time trial

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Trek Factory Racing's Kristof Vandewalle won the 24.1km time trial on stage 7 of the Tour of Austria. The Belgian champion topped his teammate Jesse Sergent, with Manuel Quinziato (BMC) in third.

Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh held onto the overall race lead with only one more stage remaining.

Vandewalle clocked a 27:50, beating Sergent by 15 seconds, but that was only part of Trek's success. The team dominated the top 10, with Danilo Hondo in 4th, Bob Jungles in 5th, and Stijn Devolder and Riccardo Zoidl going 8th and 9th.

The win was a boost for Vandewalle who has been fighting to find his form back since the spring. After a week of hard racing he was able to pull off the time trial victory in stage seven, an indication he may have finally conquered his mysterious ailment.

"I am obviously super happy with the result," he said. "I was feeling good all week, and felt like I was back to my level after struggling with weakness. It has been frustrating to not know why, and we have been examining my blood levels for some time. But this whole week I have been progressing to the point that if I had not made it onto the podium today I would have been really disappointed.

"The last two years I was third, then second last year behind Fabian [Cancellara], so I was really hoping to win. It was a TT that suited me well: pancake flat, straight lines, and the only factor the wind. It was just a matter of going full on. I did not have the best feeling during the TT, but I think that was just the wrong impression if you look at the times. I don’t know, maybe I was just a bit confused over my feelings, but in the end it’s the result that counts. Overall, I am very happy with this week."

Kennaugh finished 1:23 down on the stage winner, but holds a healthy 1:03 lead on Javier Moreno (Movistar), with Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) in third at 1:42, but Team Sky directeur sportif Dan Frost is not taking anything for granted until the final stage is over on Sunday.

"At the moment it looks good. The team have a great spirit, Pete is in great form and today he did a really good performance. He had to deal with a lot of wind out on course. A few time he had to grab onto the handlebars because of the gusts, but he did what he had to do against his opponents. He even extended his lead by a second.

"The guys have supported Pete since the first stage. Tomorrow we need to focus and we'll do that until the last lap has finished in Vienna."

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