Ganna wins Austria queen stage

All our thoughts today are with the family, friends and Coop-Repsol colleagues of André Drege following the news of his tragic passing.

Filippo Ganna produced another textbook final kilometre attack to power to victory on stage four at the Tour of Austria.

The Italian accelerated hard on the run into Kals, following some superb set-up work from his Grenadiers team-mates on the race's queen stage.

Ganna was able to hold off compatriot and race leader Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) at the line, with Brandon Rivera coming home in third place, two seconds later.

The result saw Rivera move up to second place, six seconds behind Ulissi courtesy of bonus seconds. Magnus Sheffield was fifth on the stage and now holds third overall, three seconds back on his team-mate with one stage to go.

The Grenadiers placed impressive numbers in the lead group in the final phase of the race. Kim Heiduk and AJ August got through a lot of work on the approach to the line, with the latter putting in one of the best performances of his young career.

Sunday sees the final stage and a huge mountain-top finish to Kuhtai.

Reaction

- Filippo Ganna

"I didn’t sleep really well after three days of intensive racing, but this morning I woke up with the idea to help my team-mates. When I jumped on the bus with the guys, our DS said ‘maybe Pippo if you can arrive in the last 2km in a group you can also do your own race.'

"I said okay why not try. In the end everyone arrived with a lot of pain in the legs so it could be another good opportunity for me, my team-mates and my team to win.

"I’m really happy for today. This week has been really good for me and the team – with a second place and two victories. It’s been an amazing week and tomorrow we will look to improve again for the GC."