Massimo Debertolis and Johann Pallhuber have taken over the lead in the masters classification as well as overall ranking by finishing the fifth stage of the TOUR Transalp powered by Sigma in second position.

Team Ail Trentino mastered the 130.24 km and 2,617 metres of climbing from Fiera di Primiero to Crespano del Grappa in 3:54.41,2 and was therefore only one second behind of victorious racers Christian Dengler and Maximilian Hornung of Hermann Radteam 2 who celebrated their first stage win in 3:54.40,2.

In the end, the former MTB world champion and his long-time friend from South Tyrol were 3.10,7 minutes ahead of so far leading Mathias Nothegger and Hans Peter Obwaller of www.nom-training.com – enough to edge them off the hot seat and take over the role as the main title aspirants at the 14th TOUR Transalp edition.

But the well-experienced duo did benefit from some more misfortune of their Austrian rivals. Just like yesterday, it was once again Hans Peter Obwaller who was the unlucky thing suffering another puncture at his back wheel in the last of three climbs up to Monte Tomba.

“I did catch a sharp stone which cut my tire's side. I had to do the whole climbing with a flat back wheel. Luckily we were able to change the wheel at the top of the saddle,” said Obwaller.

Thereafter, the top athletes of the first three stages did showcase some true team time trial trying to keep the gap as small as possible. Nevertheless, the two friends who get to know each other while training in Gran Canaria years ago are now 2.08,7 minutes behind of the new overall leaders.

However, the two Italians proved to be good sportsmen: “When we heard that Obwaller had a flat again we didn't upped the tempo anymore but rode side by side with the younger teams,” explained Debertolis in the finish area.

Yellow Jerseys change hands

Even so, the tempo of the leading group was high as a change in the men categories' leadership was in the making after Florian Vrecko of Yellow Jerseys bearing Team Strassacker / Garmin had to pay the price for the stresses and strains of the last days.

“Maybe he ate something wrong sometime. He has problems with his stomach for a few days now, and he is not able to give back the energy his body burns up. I cannot say what we will do now. We have to take it day by day,” explained his teammate Nils Kessler after both had lost more than 19 minutes coming in as 17th overall in a time of 4:13.54,0.

In the end, Michel Minneart and Juergen Moreels of team ERTL/RENZ – Velomotion 1 did benefit from the physical problems of their competitor. As the two Belgian climbing specialists came in as overall third (3:55.23,7) they are now the new leaders with an advantage of 33,1 seconds over today's stage winners Dengler and Hornung going into tomorrow's queen's stage of the race week.

“It was really tough. We already attacked in the first climb,” stated Moreels before his team partner Minneart added. “We were also in the lead at Monte Tomba but we screwed up the descent. We got passed by the others. But it's only the lead and defending it what's counting from now on.”