On the last stage of Flêche du Sud from Schifflange to Esch Sur Alzette with 136.5km (85mls) and 1,700m (5577ft) of climbing Sergio only needed to finish with the same time with the peloton to secure his lead over Raphael Freienstein (Germany) und Serge de Wortelaer (Belgium). The Portuguese from Austrian Tour Vorarlberg won the yellow-dotted black leader’s jersey on the fourth and penultimate day of the stage race through Luxemburg with a solo ride on his STEVENS Xenon. Souza’s win was already his team’s second stage race win this season. Previously Patrick Schelling has triumphed in the Tour de Loire et Cher (2.2) in France.

The eventual bunch sprint was also due to Team Vorarlberg’s work. From the beginning Dèr Zsolt, Fran Zurita, Patrick Jäger, Patrick Schelling und Clement Koretzky had set a very high pace to protect Sergio Souza.

So the time gap between Raphael Freienstein and Serge Wortelaer of 14 and 29 seconds, respectively stayed the same – and Team Vorarlberg also was able to defend the lead in the ranking of 25 teams. Patrick Schelling came in seventh overall.

Team Vorarlberg Leads Team Ranking
”My team fought for me from the start. I am more than happy that we have won this stage race, especially since we had been on many people’s radar. I was very strong in the mountain together with my teammates Patrick Schelling und Clement Koretzky and was able to decide the race – thanks to my superb team!” said a super-happy Sergio Sousa after the award ceremony, who also finished second in the KOM classification. Results

The Portuguese rider of Team Vorarlberg had taken over the race lead with a solo effort on the fourth of five stages. This stage was influenced by the events of the previous stage that had been neutralized after a mass crash which resulted in many riders being heavily injured. So the fourth day became the decisive stage. Until the first climb Fran Zurita and Dèr Zsolt rode a fast pace to keep the peloton together. Challenged by more than 3,000m (9842ft) of climbing the main group was reduced to 40, then 30 and eventually 9 riders.

40km before the finish Souza attacked and only Belgian Serge de Wortelaer was able to follow. Together they opened up a gap of up to more than a minute until, on the last climb with six kilometers left, Sergio Souza dropped the Belgian.