Cycling: On the last difficult mountain stage of the 66th Int. Tour of Austria from St. Johann/Alpendorf to Villach's local mountain Dobratsch, the Russian Evgeny Petrov triumphed. Riccardo Zoidl delivered a strong race as fourth on the stage. While Pete Kennaugh extended his lead in the general classification, Patrick Konrad lost some ground.
Immediately after the start of the 6th stage in St. Johann/Alpendorf, which is the most demanding of the tour at 3.521 meters in altitude, a larger leading group said goodbye, which had a lead of over seven minutes on the climb to the first mountain classification on the Radstädter Tauern. In addition to the new Glockner King Gregor Mühlberger and his Tyrolean team colleague Clemens Fankhauser, Stephan Rabitsch (Amplatz-BMC) was another driver in the lead. In addition, the bearer of the Wiesbauer-Mountain jerseys Maxim Belkov (Katusha) in the eleven-man peak.
After a few kilometers of the 10,3-kilometre Radstädter Tauern, Mühlberger and Rabitsch lost contact with the leaders and were caught up by the field. At the next difficult mountain classification up to the Turracherhöhe, Maxim Belkov, the leader of the mountain classification, was hit and had to let his eight escape colleagues go. But on the descent, which is up to 23 percent steep, Belkov caught up again. The lead over the field leveled off at over 7 minutes.
But the efforts of Russia's Maxim Belkov, who won during the 66th Int. Tour of Austria in breakaway groups collected many mountain points have paid off. The Katusha pro secured the early today Wiesbauer-mountain classification. “I drove to this classification and I did it. A great success for my team and I with this top cast here"said Belkov at the finish. The 29-year-old Russian is an absolute top rider, last year he won the 9th stage of the Giro d'Italia and in 2012 he was sixth on his first stage in the Ö-Tour.
At the third lotteries-Sprint classification Feld am See, the nine top drivers were around 5:10 minutes ahead of the main field, in which the Sky and Gourmetfein teams provided a high pace. 20 kilometers before the finish line, immediately before the start of the 16,5 kilometer long and on average 7,7 percent steep final ascent up to the 1.742 meter high Dobratsch recreation area, the lead reduced to just 3:35 minutes. Right at the beginning of the climb the leading group fell apart and Evgeny Petrov from Tinkoff-Saxo was able to pull away. The peloton with the man in yellow and all the favorites quickly shrank to less than 30 men. With four kilometers to go, Petrov, who won a stage at the Giro d'Italia in 2010, was 1:50 minutes ahead of the chasing group with Kennaugh & Co. All other escapees had already been caught.
Petrov rode as the last of the break group towards an unchallenged stage win: "Finally it worked. We wanted to get a stage win here and I'm glad I got my first win of the season on this difficult stage."
Behind them, the favorites exchanged blows: Dayer Quintana, winner of the Kitzbüheler Horn stage, attacked the field of pursuers with five kilometers to go and finished second, 24 seconds behind. Third was Pete Kennaugh (plus 26 seconds). Riccardo Zoidl drove a great race and finished fourth in the stage. “I would have wished for this level all week. Now I will give everything in tomorrow's time trial. A leap further forward is certainly still possible.", said the overall ninth, who won the Ö-Tour last year. The previous best Austrian, Patrick Konrad from Gourmetfein Wels, lost some ground. As 14th in the stage classification, he lost 1:51 minutes.