Lakata and Mennen reduce the deficit to TransAlp leaders

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Just like yesterday, Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen were the dominant racers on the TransAlp stage, thus clinching the second Tyrol stage. Team Topeak Ergon Racing mastered the Alps classic's third stage over 68km from Ischgl, Austria, to Nauders, Austria. They finished in a time of 3:04:50.

The stage winners reduced the gap on the overall leaders Markus Kaufmann and Thomas Stoll of Centurion-Vaude/BiXS iXS in the elite ranking by 50 seconds.  Kaufmann and Stoll were second on the day.

Lakata and Mennen also bettered their team ranking to the second position in the classifier, thus edging of today's third ranked Karl Platt and Tim Böhme of Team Bulls.

German Marathon Championship runner-up Mennen said at the finish of Nauders, which was part of the TransAlp running once before (2002), "Let's see how the next days will be. It's still a long way to Riva; so everything is still possible for us."

However, he and his teammate have to make up 4:55 on men in the yellow leaders' jerseys.

Lakata added, "We didn't make up that much time but we had some very strong legs. There are still five days to come, so we will definitely seek our chances."

The leaders know very well that their currently comfortable lead could fade away faster than expected.

"If we lose about one minute every day, we might make it to Lake Garda in top position. But we will fight and give our best. We want to keep the yellow jerseys as long as possible. But this will be a hard task as Lakata and Mennen are very strong," said reigning German Marathon Champion Markus Kaufmann.

The 30-year-old and his partner lost contact with Lakata and Mennen on the last climb to Norbertshöhe and thus were able to keep them until close to the finish.

Earlier, the two top ranked duos had broke away on the ascent to the Idjoch (2,737m), the high point of this year's eight-day event, which the peloton faced right after the stage's start. They subsequently extended their lead by working well together.

Landtwing and Bigham still the top dogs

In the women's category, the one-team-show of Milena Landtwing and Sally Bigham of Centurion-Vaude/Topeak Ergon went on. The two women in the pink leaders' jerseys secured their third stage win in 3:46:39.

Catherine Williamson and Louise Stopforth of Bizhub-FCF brought home the second spot (4:21:14) ahead of Andrea Kuster and Angelika Niklaus of Team Metz-Kraftwerk (4:26:04).

Masters leaders de Bertolis and Deho in third overall

Massimo de Bertolis and Marzio Deho duped the most of the elite teams with an incredible performance. Team Adamelloski, which is actually racing unrivaled in the category for the teams with a total age of 80+, finished the third stage in third overall position and thus certainly won the stage in the masters category in3:10:03.

Andreas Laner and Johann Grasegger of Team Scott as well as Anton Warter and Heinz Zörweg of Cube Factory rounded out the podium as second and third respectively.

Senior masters leaders unbeatable

Also on stage 3, Silvano Janes and Walter Platzgummer of Team Scott were in full control of their competitors crossing the finish line first in 3:37:26.

Renato Burch and Bärti Bucher of BiXS Suisse followed as second ranked senior master team of the day (3:44:52) while Georg Niggl and Walter Perkmann of CRAFT & Friends 7 earned another podium finish in third.

Team Gisler makes up time with back-to-back mixed wins

Due to their second consecutive stage triumph (3:43:37), Antonia Wipfli and Patrick Jauch reduced the gap to the leaders of the mixed table.

As the bearers of the orange jerseys of Black Tusk Racing by toMotion, Katharina Alberti and Matthias Gärtner needed about two minutes longer for the distance from Ischgl to Nauders than their rivals. Team Gisler is now only 37 seconds behind.

That fact scared the mixed leaders a little bit. "We were afraid of the Idjoch. This ascent was very steep. And the other two (Wipfli and Jauch) are stronger in the climbs while we can make up some time in the downhills. We really fought like hell to defend our lead. Now, it's time to keep on fighting," said Gärtner.

Lorenza Menapace and Claudio Segata of Press Riva del Garda came in third in the mixed category.

Tomorrow, the fourth and shortest stage of the TransAlp leads over 53km and 1,888 meters in elevation through Tyrol and thus from Nauders, Austria, to Scuol in Switzerland.

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