After his stage win on day one, Leonardo Paez, from Colombia, scored again at theAlpentour Trophy. With a second stage win, the marathon world championship bronze medal winner from last year took the leader's jersey off of Tony Longo on today’s third stage around the Dachstein Mountain.
On the first ascent towards the Türlwand Hut at the Dachstein Mountain, a lead group of six riders formed, which included all race favourites as well as the Austrian Hermann Pernsteiner. Together they completed the steep climb of almost 1,000m of elevation in a record-time of 1:06.
After the descent, Paez increased the pace as the group passed the renowned ski jumping centre in Ramsau and was able to break away by himself at the half-way mark of the race. The Colombian racer increased his lead to the chase group and won by 1:36 ahead of two time world champion Roel Paulissen. Italian Longo was third, closely followed by Persteiner.
“Today was great, I felt as strong as on the first day of the race. At yesterday’s hill climb time trial my legs were weak – maybe that’s just what I needed to recover," said the 31-year-old Paez.
Pernsteiner, who wears the jersey of the best Austrian, was the fastest local rider for the third time. “My legs felt great and today I desperately wanted to get onto the podium. And in the end, I was so close but missed it. Maybe I was too naïve when Paez attacked and wasted valuable energy for the finish. However, a fourth place overall behind Paulissen is not bad either.”
Paez again took over the lead and will wear the leader's jersey at tomorrow’s final stage. The Colombian holds a lead ahead of Longo and the Paulissen, who seemed astounded at the steep climbs today. “Naturally, we don’t have those sorts of climbs in Belgium. Especially the ascent at the ski jump in Ramsau was insane. But the scenery rewarded us today – it was just beautiful," said the tall Belgian. With a gap of 4:58 to the leader, Pernsteiner’s chances to finish the Alpentour Trophy on the podium have become slim.
Belgian Michiels claims second stage win in women's race
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Belgian national champion, Githa Michiels, showed a great performance again today and celebrated her second stage win after yesterday’s victory, “I was completely exhausted at the finish – I raced at the limit all day. I knew, that if I wanted to create a gap, today was the day, because I like climbing. The stage win is a dream come true, but the battle for the race win isn’t over yet.”
Overall in the women’s field, the Belgian rider is only 36 seconds behind the Swiss rider Milena Landtwing in second place. Third is the Slovakian Janka Keseg Stevkova at 8:42. A fall-back today for the overall leader so far: the Ukrainian Yana Belomoina reportedly took a wrong turn and lost valuable time.
Stage 4
Tomorrow’s fourth stage will start at 10:00 am at the Planai Stadium and will take the riders high up to the Hauser Kaibling Mountain, where the King of the Mountain competition will be decided at the Krummholz Hut on 1900m. Overall, 56km and 2000m of elevation will have to be completed.
