MILRAM Sprinter together with Linus Gerdemann and Thomas Rohregger at the front in the third stage
Newcomer Paul Voß continues in mountain jersey

Dortmund, 9. May 2010. MILRAM sprinter Robert Förster finished in third place in the third day of the 93rd Giro d’Italia (May 8-30 / UCI HIS). In the hectic sprint finale of a 30-rider strong lead group, he finished behind only Belgian Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) and Australian Graeme Brown (Rabobank) after 209 kilometers from Amsterdam and Middelburg. Linus Gerdemann, captain of the German ProTour team, finished seventh. His Austrian teammate Thomas Rohregger completed Team MILRAM’s excellent performance with a ninth place finish.

„That was a chaotic race with many crashes and lots of wind,“ said Robert Förster after the finish in Middelburg. „Third place is certainly ok. My form is good and there is still room for improvement.“

Christian Henn, who along with Italian Vittorio Algeri is serving as Team MILRAM’s directeur sportif, was very satisfied. „Three riders in the top ten is a super result. We helped shape the race from the front. You could see that the riders had the right attitude. That has a hectic stage with many crashes. Unfortunately our Thomas Fothen went down. Otherwise our results would have been even better.“

„We had the right feel for all the right situations,“ said Linus Gerdemann, who moved up to eighth place overall. „With Robert Förster we had our sprinter up there. We wanted to bring that group to the finish, in order to set up the sprint for Frösi. That worked out very well.“

In the overall rankings, Gerdemann improved to eighth place. Leading now is Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) ahead of Australian Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) and Briton David Millar (Garmin-Transitions). Thomas Rohregger is 17th overall.

MILRAM captain Gerdemann stayed in the thick of things for all of the windy stage. Together with his teammates Thomas Rohregger and Robert Förster, third on the day, he was in the first group and thus avoided the crashes and wind echelons which caught so many others.

For Paul Voß, who on Sunday won the mountain jersey after an exciting down-to-the-last-second fith with Italian Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago – CSF), will continue to wear the green jersey. Neither today’s stage nor the team time trial this coming Wednesday will have any points for the mountain ranking. Voß crossed the finish line before Pirazzi, so that the MILRAM newcomer can also wear the coveted jersey at least until the fifth stage on Thursday.

After three days of racing in the Netherlands, Tuesday is the first rest day of this year’s Giro d’Italia. Wednesday is the fourth stag, a team time trial from Savigliano over 32.5 kilometers to Cuneo.