Oesterreich-Rundfahrt (Tour of Austria) 2019, July 6-12 (2.1

[dick the quick]

When the entire cycling world is looking at Brussels and waiting for the beginning of le Tour, another important and interesting event is about to start.

The Tour of Austria - always remaining in the shadow of Tour de France, for calendar reasons at least - this year has to face the following two additional factors:

1) it starts on the same day as le Tour (usually, Tour of Austria is being held somewhere near the middle of Tour de France);
2) for some reasons, it has been downgraded to a 2.1 category (previously 2.HC).

Hopefully, this would not result in less attention or less interest about this race, as it offers (as usual) a very promising parcours, filled with hilly/mountain stages and including two extremely hard MTFs, a GC-relevant action being possible every day.

Route:

July 6, Prologue: Wels - Wels (flat ITT)

July 7, Stage 1: Grieskirchen - Freistadt (hilly)

July 8, Stage 2: Zwettl - Wiener Neustadt (hilly)

July 9, Stage 3: Kirschlag - Frohnleiten (hilly)

July 10, Stage 4: Radstadt - Fuscher Törl (mountain, MTF)

July 11, Stage 5: Bruck - Kitzbühel (mountain/hilly)

July 12, Stage 6: Kitzbühel - Kitzbüheler Horn (MTF)

Startlist:

Full startlst: https://www.oesterreich-rundfahrt.at/images/NEWS/2018/startinglist_2019.pdf

3 x WT, 7 x PCT, 8 x CT

No top-tier riders, but still some decent riders to watch:

Israel Cycling: Hermans
Movistar: Anacona, Betancur
CCC: de la Parte, Zoidl
Dimension Data: O'Connor
Gazprom: Vlasov
+ Schelling, Thalmann, Visconti, D. Quintana and several others

 

[Koronin]

Movistar is also sending their sprinter Barbero to this race. Not sure what other sprinters are there.

 

[Pantani_lives]

The most important stage race of the year starts today: the Österreich Rundfahrt!

 

[RedheadDane]

This seem to be the race of the twins, as there are two pairs on the start list:
1. Florian and Mario Gamper on Tirol KTM - older brother Patrick also starting.
2. Marvin and Raphael Hammerschmid on SPORT.LAND.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Re:

This seem to be the race of the twins, as there are two pairs on the start list:
1. Florian and Mario Gamper on Tirol KTM - older brother Patrick also starting.
2. Marvin and Raphael Hammerschmid on SPORT.LAND.

Much better than those Yates brothers!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Honestly, the field looks weaker than unsual, the lack of Italian pct teams besides N-S, they ride ktm bikes and therefore it's a big deal for them, is also kinda meh. From what I've heard Zoidl is peaking for this race.

 

[Velolover2]

Bentancur has been peaking for this prestigious race. Suisse was just a warm up.

 

[Escarabajo]

17.4 km @ 8.9% ouch!
6.7 km @13%. That is going to hurt.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

17.4 km @ 8.9% ouch!
6.7 km @13%. That is going to hurt.

Yeah it's always quite weird that two of the hardest climbs of the cycling season just pop up at such a small race. A few years ago they climbed the fuscher törl as well but after reaching where the finish will be this year they continued to the Edelweiß Spitze which is another 1.4 kilometers at over 10% plus the road is cobbled.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

The race losing the 2.HC label is likely due to the calendar, resulting in few teams having interest during TDF. They should try to get Tour of Norway's (aka snoozefest) or Tour of Turkey's spots in the calendar, then more teams would come, and they would automatically get a better rating imho.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

17.4 km @ 8.9% ouch!
6.7 km @13%. That is going to hurt.

Yeah it's always quite weird that two of the hardest climbs of the cycling season just pop up at such a small race. A few years ago they climbed the fuscher törl as well but after reaching where the finish will be this year they continued to the Edelweiß Spitze which is another 1.4 kilometers at over 10% plus the road is cobbled.

There's also the Fuji hillclimb at the Tour of Japan, which is likewise an annual event just as Austria repeats the same mountains despite having one of the biggest gluts of HC mountains in the world.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Strange to see a thread opened for this race, but nobody posting in it now that the GC battle has started. Maybe these 2.1 races are best left for the General News thread?

First MTF stage: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-of-austria/2019/stage-4

Hermans won with a few seconds on O'Connor & Anacona. He's also the new leader.

 

[ppanther92]

Pretty much the favourites in front yesterday. I didn't know that de Bod climbs that well though. And Betancur is back to Fatancur it seems.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Vlasov won the last MTF stage. Hermans won the overall GC again.

 

[Wvv]

Nice for Ben, after quite some time with physical setbacks.