With a tactically brilliant effort of the his whole Team Vorarlberg Victor de la Parte secured overall victory in the fifth and final stage of the Flèche du Sud (UCI 2.2) riding his STEVENS Xenon. In the concluding 160km (100ml) stage from Bascharage to Esch/Alzett the race was on from the very beginning.

At first Grischa Janorschke and another five riders had attacked thereby putting pressure on the current race leader and last year’s winner Gaetan Bille from Belgium and his team. It wasn’t until Kilometer 50 that Bille’s team had caught up with the escape group.

Just when Janorschke’s group was caught, it was Victor de la Parte’s moment. Team Vorarlberg’s climbing specialist already had felt good on the race’s hilly terrain and had placed himself in the top seven with only a small time gap behind the leader. In the fourth stage he had already taken over the Blue Jersey for in the combination ranking.
 
Perfect Result
In the final stage he initiated the decisive attack and was able to break-away from the pack together with another 9 riders. Bille’s Verandas Willems Cycling Team managed to reduce the gap of up to four minutes down to only one minute, but this was just enough time for de la Parte to secure overall victory and the leader’s jersey with the golden dots.
The team’s Director Sportif Hans Innerhofer was very pleased after the race and said: ”Today our tactics worked and we managed to get the perfect result. All riders made a huge effort to secure overall victory for the team!”

Together with Victor de la Parte riders Aldo Ilesic, Grischa Janorschke, Daniel Lehner, Christoph Springer and Andreas Walzel already had competed in the ”Arrow Of Luxemburg”.

Podium Placing at the Tour Rhône-Alpes-Isère (UCI 2.2)
At the same time the other part of the team took part in the Tour Rhône-Alpes-Isère (UCI 2.2). Here Nicolas Baldo rode to a respectable third place in the fourth and final stage of the race in southern France.

The Frenchman had ridden away from the pack on the sixth mountain of the 170km (106ml) stage from Saint-Maurice-l'Exil to Charvieu-Chavagneux together with six riders and due to the large time gap temporarily rode in the virtual leader’s jersey. But Team Europcar chased them down. On the final climb Baldo again took off followed by two other riders to finish third of that escape group only five seconds ahead of the chasing peloton.

Baldo finished 14th overall and was in the top ten in both the sprinters’ and the climbers’ category. Overall winner became Sam Oomen of Rabobank Development Team.
Directeur Sportif Werner Salmen concludes: ”Despite five riders having to drop out of the race due to illness, Nicolas Baldo delivered a sensational performance. The only drawback was a mechanical in the first stage and the crash of promising talent Daniel Paulus in the final stage. Without these mishaps he could have kept up with the top riders in the U25 category.”