- Aug 18, 2010
- 11,435
- 3,594
- 28,180
Stage four of the Ras:
Aidis Kruopis (An Post) won from an elite selection featuring probably the strongest eight riders in the race. It would have been a bit embarrassing if he hadn't, given that An Post also had Ryan Mullen and Josh Edmondson in the group and nobody else had a teammate. This is the team's second stage win at the race.
Davide Vigano (Team IDEA) came second. It would have been funny if the "naughty boys" of the race had won yet again. Ian Bibby (NFTO) was third. The other riders in the group were last year's winner Clemens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics) and Martyn Irvine (Madison Genesis), along with race leader Lukas Postlberger (Tirol Cycling Team).
Postlberger worked like a dog to keep the group away. He's 1:05 ahead of Edmondson in GC now. In doing so he put all but the top 6 down by over 3 minutes on GC. The Ras is almost always raced very wildly, with endless attacks and small teams, so making as many of the stronger riders as possible irrelevant to GC as early as possible is important. Hard to see him getting beaten unless something goes drastically wrong. He also took over the points competition lead. The guy is showing strength and a tactical brain. He seems like a rider who could do a job for a bigger team. He's only 24 and has previously won a few 1.2 races, the Austrian National RR and a stage of Avenir. This would be his first stage race win, I think, and he's doing it the hard way, riding on the front after all of his team has been dropped.
Aidis Kruopis (An Post) won from an elite selection featuring probably the strongest eight riders in the race. It would have been a bit embarrassing if he hadn't, given that An Post also had Ryan Mullen and Josh Edmondson in the group and nobody else had a teammate. This is the team's second stage win at the race.
Davide Vigano (Team IDEA) came second. It would have been funny if the "naughty boys" of the race had won yet again. Ian Bibby (NFTO) was third. The other riders in the group were last year's winner Clemens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics) and Martyn Irvine (Madison Genesis), along with race leader Lukas Postlberger (Tirol Cycling Team).
Postlberger worked like a dog to keep the group away. He's 1:05 ahead of Edmondson in GC now. In doing so he put all but the top 6 down by over 3 minutes on GC. The Ras is almost always raced very wildly, with endless attacks and small teams, so making as many of the stronger riders as possible irrelevant to GC as early as possible is important. Hard to see him getting beaten unless something goes drastically wrong. He also took over the points competition lead. The guy is showing strength and a tactical brain. He seems like a rider who could do a job for a bigger team. He's only 24 and has previously won a few 1.2 races, the Austrian National RR and a stage of Avenir. This would be his first stage race win, I think, and he's doing it the hard way, riding on the front after all of his team has been dropped.
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