Serious falls

Carr wins the queen stage of the Tour of the Alps

The Australian Harper crashed into the lamppost.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

British rider Simon Carr won the queen stage of the Tour of the Alps as a solo breakaway. The EF pro also benefited from a heavy crash of his pursuer Chris Harper on a descent, as a result of which the following group with the top favorites gave up the chase after Carr. The overall leader's jersey was retained by Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) after 141 km with around 4,000 meters of climbing from Laives to Borgo Valsugana.

The Australian Harper fell at high speed due to a bump in a blind bend and crashed hard on a sidewalk. He then also skidded into a lamp post. Harper suffered superficial wounds and a slight concussion, but no broken bones, as his team Jayco announced in the evening.

Shortly after him, Ben O'Connor crashed in the same place. In contrast to Harper, who was knocked out, his Australian compatriot from the Decathlon team was able to continue with a bleeding wound on his face and is now second overall.

Messner nine minutes behind
His gap to Lopez, who successfully fended off several attacks in the final phase, is 38 seconds ahead of Friday's final section with start and finish in Levico Terme. Third is the Italian Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain/+48 sec.). The best Austrian on the penultimate day was 26th.

Martin Messner from the national team was 26th, more than nine minutes behind. In the overall classification, all red-white-red pros are far outside the top ranks.