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A violent rain storm forced officials to stop the Tour of Austria prologue mid-race on Sunday

by VeloNews.com

• July 06, 2008
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2008 Tour of Austria: The prologue was canceled soon after Boonen finished.

Photo: www.derfotograf.at/Klaus Titzer/Verwendung auf Anfrage

A violent thunderstorm forced officials to cancel the prologue of the Tour of Austria on Sunday. Officials decided to stop the race soon after Quick Step’s Tom Boonen finished his effort on the 1.5km prologue course in Chisua.

Boonen is competing in Austria after Tour de France organizers barred him from competing in the Tour because of a recent out-of-competition positive test for cocaine.

Although the partial results from the prologue will be nullified, Germany’s Steffen Radochla (Elk Haus Simplon) will wear the yellow jersey in Monday’s stage, as he did the fastest time of the day before the race was stopped.

All riders will start Monday’s stage with the same overall time. The stage departs from Chisua and finishes in Toblach after 171 kilometers.

The seven-stage, 1080km stage race ends July 13 in Vienna.