April 17, Stage 5: Marathon - Athens 104km Schafer wins Hellas

Greek Tamouridis forced to settle for second

Stefan Schafer was the winner of the 17th International Tour of Greece. The LKT Brandeburg rider maintained his 5 second of advantage on the final day of the race, the 5th stage from Marathon to Athens.

Stefan Schafer won two stages, his first win coming in Delfi and his second in Marathon, and thus he wore the light blue jersey for the final two days of the Tour. Bad weather conditions also played a huge role in the last two days of the race, with rain and low temperatures (almost 10°C, which is very low for Greece in April).

"I am very happy because it was very difficult for us to make it,” Schafer said after the finish. “Today the road was very slippery because of the rain and we had to be careful. It was dramatic, especially on the pavement below the archaeological sites of the Acropolis. But my general opinion about 17th International Tour of Greece is that it was a very good Tour. Our only problem was the weather, but we are professionals and have to accept this. I want also to congratulate my team who helped me until the last metre of the race."

Ioannis Tamouridis of SP Tableware remained in second place, just five seconds behind and Markus Fothen of Team NSP was third, 56 seconds back.

"The progress of the race for my team makes me believe that it would have been a good scenario for a movie,” Tamouridis said. “We had very bad luck, and this started one week before Tour of Greece when our teammate, a French guy Guillame Pont, was injured. Our drama completed in Marathon with the escapees who fell just a few metres before the finish line. Today my teammates had four punctures and a fall, so I stayed in second place of GC."

The winner of the final stage was Tino Thomel (team NSP) who also won the first stage in Preveza. Second was Jacob Fiedler (Team NSP) and third was Jeremy Yates of Manisaspor.