RADIOSHACK NISSAN TREK riders animated stage 4 in the Tour of Austria, executing a well-crafted plan that saw Jakob Fuglsang win the stage and earn the yellow jersey.
“I’m super happy with this win and the overall,” said a joyous Jakob Fuglsang. “It is certainly defendable and we’re going to do everything we can to bring the yellow home. It’s cool that the team has the yellow jersey in two different stage races.”
“We went to the race today with a definite strategy,” said team director José Azevedo. “We planned to send some guys to the front and force our rivals to play the game our way. Jakob and even Laurent were not that far back in the GC so we had different cards to play. If our plan didn’t work, we still had Tommy to show his good legs on the steep finish climb. But Plan A was good enough so that didn’t turn out to be necessary.”
At 141.3km stage 4 began in Lienz and ended in St. Johann/Alpendorf by way of the Grossglockner. From the start the course went uphill and RSNT sent four riders in the break to go hard on the Iselberg. Race leader Danilo Di Luca was forced to put his team on the chase and by the time the front group of 18 had reached the top, the gap was around one minute.
Fuglsang: “From the beginning it was our plan to put Di Luca under pressure. On the first climb I felt straight away that I had super good legs today. I hadn’t felt very good on the climb to Kitzbühel, but today everything felt perfect. I was there pulling with Matthew Busche. We didn’t have a big gap on Di Luca, but we wanted to make the race as hard as possible because we have a strong team here.”
On the 2500m Grossglockner with a summit 95k from the finish, team riders went hard, joined in the effort by BMC. Fuglsang: “Di Luca came back to us on the Grossglockner but he had to work hard to do it, so that was ok for us. Once he was back with us, Laurent attacked and Di Luca closed the gap. Then it was my turn. I had to go at that point.” Jakob tried and managed to get away with König from Team Net App. The gap went up again and with 50km to go, the duo held over 3:30.
“König didn’t do too much work; I think he was really tired,” continued Fuglsang. “But in my mind I knew he could be playing and saving his energy to beat me for the stage, so I was careful. I dropped him on a rolling part with 20km to go.” Fuglsang arrived solo with more than one minute advantage and took the yellow jersey from Di Luca.
Azevedo: “Jakob did an awesome ride today. But it wasn’t only Jakob. The team has been really strong here and it was amazing to have four such strong riders in the break. You really have many options when you create that situation. Thank you to the whole team!”
Fuglsang: “Here’s a big thanks to TREK because the new Madone is amazingly aero. I could tell from the way König had to push because my bike was almost flying. I love it!”
