Dietsch and Boehme of Team Bulls 2 win mass sprint

Thomas Dietsch and Tim Boehme (Team Bulls 2) won the 77km sixth stage from Sarnthein to Kaltern, in a time of 4:00:10. The Yellow Jersey wearers, Lukas Buchli and Thomas Stoll (BiXS iXS Pro Team) and Hannes Genze and Andreas Kugler (Multivan Merida Biking Team) sprinted to second and third respectively.

In previous stages, it just didn't work out for Dietsch and Boehme. Just before the third aid station, the team was down more than a minute on the top two teams, thanks to a flat tire.

It looked like another race catastrophe for the Bulls squad (a technical problem cost Team Bulls 1 a stage win yesterday). But in contrast with last year's champions Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm, who had to quit the race this morning, the day had a happy ending for Dietsch and Boehme.

"About five kilometres before our food station, I had a flat tyre and pedalled on without any air," Dietsch said. "It was so slippery that I'm really glad nothing serious happened."

On the last kilometres, the duo went for it. "We didn't have anything to lose anyway," Dietsch said. Boehme added, "It's a nice compensation for the whole team after Karl (Platt) had to give up due to his injury. We dedicate this win to him." The 27-year-old wasn't sure if he'd start at all this year due to illness when the TransAlp race started last weekend.

Duel for title remains a close one

The two top overall teams continued to do battle. "At the end we enjoyed the trails," said Thomas Stoll. But the BiXS iXS Pro Team member also said his team was in control of the race until the second climb. "We raced true to the motto that attacking is the best form of defence. This worked out well."

The two leaders had a moment of shock when Hannes Genze (Multivan Merida) took over the work at the front. His team was down by just 1:53. After a crash yesterday, Gennze was feeling more confident. "I wanted to show that I'm back to business and that others have to fear us again. It's not over yet!"

Two more stages remain.

Mixed leaders win despite pedal problem

Though they added another win the Rocky Mountain riders Alison Sydor and Daniel Gathof were lucky that things didn't turned out worse. About two kilometers before the finish line in Kaltern, the 26-year-old Gathof had lost his right pedal. "I crashed and then rode one very lopsided downhill. I had to run uphill to the finish."

Gathof did so fast enough to keep Switzerland's Anita Steiner and Sepp Fischli (Stoeckli Craft/Fischli Bikes) in second. Margrit Joerg and Roland Abaecherli (Giant-Swiss-Mixed) came in third and bumped former third place GC racers Steffi Hadraschek and Martin Jochem down a spot.

Team KTM unstoppable in the master category

With their fourth stage win, Ekkehard Doerschlag and Heinz Zoerweg mastered the stage from Sarnthein to Kaltern in 4:11:52 for an 8:30 advantage over Scott-Adidas' Walter Platzgummer and Johann Grasegger. Italy’s Silvano Janes and Stephan Unterthurner from Petrovilla Bergner Bau RTTR rounded out the podium in third.

Due to their performance today, Doerschlag/Zoerweg extended their overall lead to 25 minutes as they aim for a TransAlp four-peat.

"We had planned to attack on the second climb. We did so and just broke off in our own pace," said Zoerweg. In addition, the 46-year-old pointed out that "if we don't have a major technical problem on the course or one of us goes down badly I guess we'll wrap things up in the Eiva."

Rothaus-Cube ladies continue streak

On the women's side, Milena Landtwing and Kristine Noorgard claimed victory on the sixth stage. About five minutes later Peggy Klose and Claudia Till from Zwillingscraft 1 secured the second spot (5:11:03). Another seven minutes later, Susann Oehring and Katrin Neumann from Fi´zi:k Ti:m finished the race in third (5:18:10).

Ganser/Niggl win number five in senior master category

Ferdinand Ganser and Georg Niggl mastered the sixth of eight stages in 4:54:20.8 hours. Craig Peacock and Hans Dielacher from Merida Flight Centre rolled in the finish (5:12:13) in second. Switzerland's Ueli Schuermann and Hanspeter Hunziker from Long Time Biker V-Sport.ch placed third (5:27:23).

Stage 7 Preview: Kaltern - Andalo

The second to last stage might not be the longest one but is peppered with a lot of metres of elevation gain due to two climbs. A total of 74.63 kilometres and 3,007 metres of elevation gain faces racers on course from Kaltern to Andalo, a true summit finish.

It's the fourth and final stage with more than 3,000m of climbing. After a smooth trail down to Vervo, some soft forest roads will bring the peloton into the Valle di Non. At the end, a steep 800 metre climb up to Andalo remains as the week's only summit finish.

Results