Brown sprints to final stage victory in Austria

Graeme Brown of Rabobank won the sprint of the last stage of the Tour of Austria, while a battered and bandaged Riccardo Ricco (Ceramica Flaminia) hung on to take the overall win.  Brown outsprinted two Germans, Robert Förster of Milram and HTC-Columbia's Andre Greipel.

Ricco, heavily bandaged and in pain, managed to ride the final stage to claim his first-ever stage race title.  In the previous day's time trial he crashed into a parked motorcycle, breaking his nose and cutting his knee badly enough to require 12 stitches.

The Italian was able to maintain his 38-second lead over Sergio Pardilla (CarmioOro), with Emanuele Sella (also CarmioOro) in third place overall.

“It was hard today, because I was obviously in a lot of pain,” Ricco said.  “But it was a great race for me, my first big stage race win.  Plus I won the two most important stages.”

It was Brown's first win of the year, after a number of second-place finishes.  “It finally worked out with a win!” he said. Greipel, who had previously won two stages, said “We calculated wrong and were too early in the wind.”

The stage was marked by the escape of four Austrian riders:  Matthias Brändle (Footon-Servetto), Riccardo Zoidl (Arbö Gourmetfein Wels), Dominik Brändle and Stefan Kirchmair (both Team Tyrol). They stayed away until the penultimate lap of the closing circuit course in Vienna.

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