- Feb 18, 2015
- 13,517
- 9,043
- 28,180
Unfortunately I only have a video of the last 15 minutes of this stage, and it's in German but believe me this stage was incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6dmPMArdoU
This stage came two days after Di Luca won on the Kitzbüheler Horn in front of Morabito and Rohregger. Di Luca wore the leaders jersey but had a pretty weak team to defend it, while Rohregger who was only 10 seconds behind the Italian had lots of very strong helpers like Jakob Fuglsang, who lost surprisingly much time on the Kitzbüheler Horn.
Trek decided to use the teams strength and put pressure on Di Luca right from the start. They set an incredibly high pace on the Iselsberg and split the peloton. While there were many Trek riders in front Di Luca was in the 2nd peloton and only had a few domestiques left after the climb. They tried to bridge to gap but Aqua Sapone lost the unofficial TTT on the flat between the first two climbs. Di Luca therefore decided to attack and bridge the gap between the two gaps himself. His move was successful but he had the huge problem to face the Großglockner completely isolated. Trek again used their team strength and Rohregger let Fuglsang attack to put Di Luca under pressure. But since that happened over 100 km from the finish Di Luca didn't want to chase himself, so a back then pretty unknown Leopold König followed Fuglsang and the two rode away from the peloton. (I at least think König wasn't very famous back then, but I'm honestly not entirely sure since I didn't follow cycling that closely in 2012)
While the riders in the peloton were looking at each other Fuglsangs and Königs advantage grew bigger, until at one point König had to drop because of cramps. Fuglsang however finished his solo successfully with an advantage of almost 3 minutes and went on to win the Österreich Rundfahrt. A great stage from a rather small race, but 140 kilometers non stop action are something incredible anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6dmPMArdoU
This stage came two days after Di Luca won on the Kitzbüheler Horn in front of Morabito and Rohregger. Di Luca wore the leaders jersey but had a pretty weak team to defend it, while Rohregger who was only 10 seconds behind the Italian had lots of very strong helpers like Jakob Fuglsang, who lost surprisingly much time on the Kitzbüheler Horn.
Trek decided to use the teams strength and put pressure on Di Luca right from the start. They set an incredibly high pace on the Iselsberg and split the peloton. While there were many Trek riders in front Di Luca was in the 2nd peloton and only had a few domestiques left after the climb. They tried to bridge to gap but Aqua Sapone lost the unofficial TTT on the flat between the first two climbs. Di Luca therefore decided to attack and bridge the gap between the two gaps himself. His move was successful but he had the huge problem to face the Großglockner completely isolated. Trek again used their team strength and Rohregger let Fuglsang attack to put Di Luca under pressure. But since that happened over 100 km from the finish Di Luca didn't want to chase himself, so a back then pretty unknown Leopold König followed Fuglsang and the two rode away from the peloton. (I at least think König wasn't very famous back then, but I'm honestly not entirely sure since I didn't follow cycling that closely in 2012)
While the riders in the peloton were looking at each other Fuglsangs and Königs advantage grew bigger, until at one point König had to drop because of cramps. Fuglsang however finished his solo successfully with an advantage of almost 3 minutes and went on to win the Österreich Rundfahrt. A great stage from a rather small race, but 140 kilometers non stop action are something incredible anyway.
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