Tour of Austria: Zabel garners first professional win

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After crashing in the final kilometres yesterday, Rick Zabel (BMC Racing) bounced back to his first professional victory Tuesday on stage 3 at the Tour of Austria. The win came on the birthday of his father, Erik, the six-time winner of the points classification at the Tour de France. Zabel out-sprinted Ángel Vicioso (Team Katusha) and Jan Tratnik (Amplatz-BMC) after 181.8km of racing, as Vicioso took the lead in the GC classification, one second ahead of Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka).

A two-man breakaway including Dylan Teuns, Zabel’s teammate, were given space for most of the day before being caught with only two kilometres to go.

“After the breakaway was caught, there was a bit of chaos because nobody was strong enough to control it any more,” Zabel said. “I was one of the last guys to make it over the steep climb on the circuit. Fortunately, it was still about 10km from the top to the finish, so I was able to recover.”

As on Monday, Zabel was second wheel through the final turn. "With 400 meters to go, I was already in front, but I waited a bit and a rider from the Amplatz-BMC team passed me," he said. "So I went on his wheel and he actually did a good lead out for me. In the final meters, Vicioso came close to me, but luckily I was strong enough to hold on for the win."

Vicioso slide into the yellow jersey after gaining a time bonus for second place. “This morning I was really motivated to do well in this stage,” he said. “I am pretty fast in the sprint and that climb in the last 10km could provide a good selection for a small group in the finish.

I wanted to get some bonus seconds and, why not, to try to get the yellow jersey. I started [sprinting] a little bit early, right after we passed the last corner, only Zabel could pass me,” Vicioso concluded.  

Zabel now sits in third on GC, with the top three all within one second of each other. Stage 4 begins tomorrow in Gratin Stift Rein before finishing in Villacher Alpenstraße/Dobratsch for 210.2km. 

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