Having already taken a top 3 result from a breakaway in the Tour de Suisse, Lawrence Warbasse was again on the attack in yesterday's mountain stage of the Tour of Austria. Having gone full gas, the American held on to tak a top 10 result.
BMC Racing Team's Larry Warbasse was part of a nine-man breakaway Friday on the way to eighth place on the final summit finish of the Tour of Austria. Before the finishing climb, two other categorized mountains were climbed while traveling 182.4 kilometers from St. Johann/Alpendorf to Villach-Dobratsch.
The breakaway built a more than eight-minute advantage, but the peloton was determined not to let the escapees take the day's spoils.
"It was really hard and the whole day was so fast," Warbasse said. "I have been in quite a few breakaways over the years and that was one the fastest. We were pretty much riding at our limit the whole day."
Evgeny Petrov (Tinkoff-Saxo) attacked his breakaway companions and soloed to win by 24 seconds ahead of Stage 3 winner Dayer Quintana (Movistar Team) and British national road champion Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), who held onto the overall lead.
Heading into Saturday's individual time trial, Kennaugh leads Javier Moreno (Movistar Team) in the general classification by 62 seconds. Brent Bookwalter is the BMC Racing Team's best-placed rider, in 19th. Warbasse's performance moved him up from 30th to 21st overall.
"When we hit the bottom of the climb, we were going pretty hard," Warbasse said. "I did a surge and then Petrov counter-attacked and went away. Then, with five kilometers to go, we were caught by the yellow jersey group. I was able to stay in there for awhile, but I suffered quite a bit."
"Larry did a good job all day," sport director Jackson Stewart said. "He rode smart and he rode similarly to how he rode in the breakaway at the Tour de Suisse. At the bottom of the climb, the attacks started going and he didn't look so good. But, in hindsight, he was doing a good job of pacing himself up the climb. I don't think anyone expected anyone from the breakaway to have legs like that."
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