Thanks to another strong performance, the yellow jersey wearers extended their lead in the overall standings. The Kaufmann/Käss duo have a 7:40 minute lead over their closest rivals, who now come from the same racing team. After their second place, the duo Geismayr/Genze moved up to second place overall. However, the Austrian-German pairing benefited from a fatal technical defect in the team that had previously been in second place, Alban Lakata (AUT) and Kristian Hynek (CZE). After these three teams were able to pull away from the other top riders on the 1,800-meter climb to the Vöraner Alm, the stage win was decided on the sometimes technically demanding descent from the Sarner ski hut.

Due to a riding error, Hynek overlooks a stone and suffers a rear wheel defect. As this could no longer be repaired, the rim also broke, forcing the Czech to tackle the last three kilometers to the finish on foot. The two Italians Franz Hofer and Daniele Mensi also benefit from this mishap. Lying in fourth place, the two rode to the finish in third place a little later, celebrating their first podium finish at the Craft-BIKE-Transalp.

Nothing further for Lukas Buchli and Konny Looser. After finishing 13th on the stage and over an hour behind overall, the two Swiss marathon pros abandoned the Transalp in disappointment. "We tried by hook or by crook to get over the first short climbs with the leaders. However, this plan quickly failed because I had no chance of keeping up with the rear wheels of the top teams. Even later in the second group, I was almost left behind on the flat," Looser reported, exhausted.

Ranking Men

Swiss women defend their lead
After the fourth Transalp stage, the women's classification is back on track. After losing a lot of time yesterday to the wearers of the pink leader's jerseys, the Austrians Silke Schrattenecker and Barbara Mayer were able to make up some ground. In their stage victory from Naturns in Vinschgau to Sarnthein in Sarntal, the two took around seven minutes off the Swiss riders Cornelia Hug and Andrea Fässler.

Hug and Fässler still have a cushion of a good five minutes over Schrattenecker and Mayer in the overall classification. Third in both the stage and overall classification are Sarah Bosch from Germany and Daniele Troesch from France. Barbara Liardet and Stéphanie Gutknecht work their way up to tenth place overall with their fourth place on the stage. It is unlikely that the two Swiss riders will make it into the top 5. Due to their maximum time penalty, which they received on the second stage, Liardet and Gutknecht are around three hours behind the fifth-placed riders.

The fifth stage, starting in Sarnthein, rides over 67 kilometers and almost 2,800 meters of altitude to Kaltern. The participants of the Craft-BIKE-Transalp face two major obstacles, each with around 1,000 meters of ascent. The remaining meters of ascent are completed with the numerous small climbs.