Markus Fothen and Luke Roberts also in the top ten in Australia

Dortmund, 21 January 2010. MILRAM’s Thomas Rohregger took the mountain jersey in the third stage of the Tour Down Under (17-24 January/UCI ProTour). Team MILRAM showed a convincing, strong performance that brought Luke Roberts to the seventh and Markus Fothen to the eighth place respectively, making Fothen the best German today after 132.5 kilometers from Unley to Stirling. In a thrilling finale at 43° Celsius, the stage win went to Manuel Cardoso (Portugal, Footon Servetto), leaving places two and three to Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) and world champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing). Crossing the finish line with the main pack was sufficient for overall leader Greipel to defend his leader’s jersey. MILRAM riders Roberts (11.), Rohregger (13.) and Markus Fothen (21.) now lie only a promising 20 seconds behind.

“It has been a very successful day for us,” Vittorio Algeri, Directeur Sportif for Team MILRAM, wraps up. “We had ambitious plans for today, and we put them nearly all into action. Thomas Rohregger and Luke Roberts launched a very clever attack and got the mountain jersey for us. Markus Fothen was there in the finale, so all three of them stand a good chance in the overall after their great performance today. Saturday is going to be hilly again, so we will have to try to neutralise the peloton’s sprinters in order to advance in the overall.”

At the beginning, four riders left their mark on the third stage: Sebastien Rosseler (RadioShack), Juan Horrach (Katjuscha), Mathieu Perget (Caisse d’Epargne) and Australian Peter McDonald (UniSA) were in a breakaway. But already after 30 kilometers the gap was down to under two minutes. At the mountain point at Wickhams Hill Road after 40 kilometers MILRAM’s Thomas Rohregger and Luke Roberts launched an impressive attakc and got away from the pack.

The two passed the other four breakaway riders, who had more or less given up, and defended the gap up to the mountain prize, where Rohregger took 16 points, enough to secure the TDU’s mountain jersey. After that, the two MILRAM riders’ breakaway was over. More attacks followed, but the peloton was quick to forestall any serious breakaways. The closing sprint of a hilly stage, which left the peloton fragmented, was won by Manuel Cardoso’s decisive attack.

Friday’s fourth stage of the Tour Down Under, which ends on Sunday, will bring 149.5 kilometers from Norwood to Goolwa.