Frank takes back-to-back stage victories at Tour of Austria

BMC continued its strong showing at the Tour of Austria as Mathias Frank won stage five today, his second straight stage win and the third consecutive victory for the team following Thor Hushovd's win on Tuesday.

Frank powered up the uphill finish in Sonntagberg to win by five seconds over Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) while Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) placed third one second later.

It was an historic day for BMC as Frank became the first rider in team history to win back-to-back days in a stage race.

"It was pretty steep at the finish and we had just caught the breakaway," Frank said. "The guys did a perfect job of putting me in the front. I took the last couple of corners into the climb in third wheel and had a perfect lead-out.

"I went with about 700 meters to go because I knew this was a distance I could go full gas and do my sprint. But when I attacked, I was surprised nobody else was in my wheel."

Overnight general classification leader Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana) finished ninth on the day at 16 seconds and remains in the yellow jersey. Second-placed Riccardo Zoidl (Team Gourmetfein Simplon) finished seven seconds in front of the Belgian, however, and reduced his overall deficit to 52 seconds. Seeldraeyers's teammate Alexandr Dyachenko retains his third place general classification placing at 1:04.

The peloton faced the longest stage of the Tour of Austria, 228.3km from St. Johann/Alpendorf to Sonntagberg, and the pace was quick from the start as the riders covered 50 kilometres in the opening hour.

A three man-break eventually formed after 75 kilometres, comprised of Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha), Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli) and Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), and as they reached the final intermediate sprint at 115km their lead had grown to five minutes.

The trio remained off the front until late in the stage when Ignatyev, also on the attack during stage three, dropped his two breakaway companions inside of 10 kilometres to go. Ignatyev would be swept up in the approach to the finish, setting the stage for another BMC victory.