The 2nd stage of the Tour of Austria saw another bunch sprint with David Tanner (IAM Cycling) securing the stage win. Clement Venturini (Cofidis) was 2nd and Peter Kusztor (Amplatz – BMC) was in 3rd place.
The day saw Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung out to defend the yellow leader’s jersey of Gerald Ciolek as two riders jumped into the break of the day. The 2 leaders were allowed to get a maximum of 7 minutes on the main field before MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung took control of the race.
It was our African team that rode on front all stage, unassisted by any of the other teams, to eventually bring the race all back together for the bunch kick. Just as it was the case yesterday, the finale was run through a tight and twisting final kilometer which made positioning rather important.
Gerald Ciolek was once again involved at the business end of the stage with our German strong man eventually crossing the line in 9th after being held up behind two riders who crashed in front of him in the final corner. The awesome work our African team put in today was rewarded withGerald holding onto the race leader’s yellow jersey for another day.
Kristian Sbaragli – Rider
Today we worked really hard to keep the yellow jersey. Nobody helped us to control the race so it was quite a hard stage. We were able to close the gap to everything that went away and it was a bunch sprint. Gerald was feeling good too so we were able to hold on to the yellow jersey.
