The Briton Simon Carr won the queen stage of the Tour of the Alps as a solo breakaway. The EF rider also benefited from a serious fall of his pursuer Chris Harper on a descent, as a result of which the following group with the favorites gave up the hunt for Carr. The overall leader’s jersey was retained by the Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) after 141 km with around 4,000 meters of altitude from Laives to Borgo Valsugana.
The Australian Harper (Jayco) fell due to a bump in a blind corner at high speed and hit the pavement hard. He then slid into a lamppost. Shortly after him, Ben O’Connor fell in the same place. In contrast to Harper, who received medical attention on the route but remained conscious, his Australian compatriot from the Decathlon team was able to continue with a bleeding wound on his face and is now second overall.
Messner best Austrian
Before the final section on Friday with the start and finish in Levico Terme, he was 38 seconds behind Lopez, who successfully fended off several attacks in the final phase. Third is the Italian Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain/+48 seconds). The best Austrian on the penultimate day was Martin Messner from the national team, 26th, more than nine minutes behind. In the overall ranking, all red-white-red professionals are well outside the top ranks.
