Leopold Koenig wins the sixth stage of the Tour of Britain
Team NetApp's Leopold Koenig won the sixth stage of the Tour of Britain in great style. He relegated Jon Tiernan-Locke (Endura Racing) and Nathan Haas (Garmin Sharp) to second and third place, respectively, during the 190-km selective course through Wales, which went from Welshpool to Caerphilly. Teammate Bartosz Huzarski rounded out the successful day by placing ninth.
With this win, the 24-year-old Czech rider scored his 11th victory of the season for Team NetApp.
"Everything just fell into place today. The stage went according to our plan. The team rode with their eyes open and Leo had the right form to prevail. Tactically speaking, he rode a very clever race, setting up all the attacks properly and not allowing himself to lose his cool. I'm delighted for Leo. After facing a lot of setbacks in the first half of the season due to his injury, it's great that he's now claiming his first win of the season," says Enrico Poitschke, Team NetApp's Sport Director.
The decisive attack occurred during the penultimate mountain classification with 12 kilometers to go to the finish. Jon Tiernan-Locke attacked from the peloton and took the lead. Koenig caught up with Tiernan-Locke on the descent, with the two of them heading into the final five kilometers. On the last curve Koenig emerged from the slipstream and was able to win the stage with a considerable lead.
The penultimate stage of the Tour of Britain covers 173 Kilometers from Barnstaple to Dartmouth. The course is again very selective and hilly. Shortly after the start the riders will face "South Hill", a second category climb, followed by two first category climbs right after each other.
