Albasini climbs into driver's seat

Swiss rider Michael Albasini took the overall leader from his teammate Andre Greipel on the second stage of the Tour of Austria. The Columbia-HTC rider took the stage win atop the Kitzbuehler Horn five seconds in front of last years winner in the mountain general classification Giampaolo Caruso and Ruslan Pidgornyy to give his team its second stage and second yellow jersey of the race.

"It was a spectacular victory. Michael managed to wear out all the other guys in a break on a really steep 10km final climb and finally he went for the win," said Columbia-HTC directeur sportif Tristan Hoffman. "He and [teammate] Gert Dockx had been away most of the day in a 13-rider break that always looked like it might be able to stay clear, and that's what happened.

Albasini broke away with 12 other riders in the first 20km of the stage, and was the sole survivor on the demanding 7.7km ascent to the finish line. Coming into the climb with a 2:30 deficit, Caruso rocketed from the bunch in search of the stage victory, but lost all chances when he suffered a flat tire. He finished just five seconds behind Albasini, and is now in second on GC at nine seconds.

"But it was a real team effort because Gert did a lot of the work to ensure the break stayed away," continued Hoffman. "Then Michael helped a bit because we wanted to be sure the move had a good few minutes at the bottom of the final climb. After the break started the ascent, Michael kept in front, and the group shrank to four and then two. He just wore them out!

"Finally Michael was able to win the stage, although it was close because a rider caught him with 200 metres to go. And now he's race leader as well."

It wasn't all good news for Columbia-HTC - the squad lost two of its riders, which makes the overall victory a harder task in the coming days. "We lost two riders today. Adam Hansen is sick and Kanstantsin Sivtsov pulled out because his wife is just about to give birth, so we'll have to play our cards right. Still, two wins in two days is a great result, and whatever happens it's been a very good race for us," said Hoffman.