Goosebumps mood is guaranteed when on Wednesday, July 9, “Austria’s most beautiful city square”, quote sports councilor Christian Baumgarten, is in series stage location of the “Tour of Austria” for the third time. In the 74th edition of the Austria cycling tour- the first overall winner in 1949, the legendary Richard Menapace- Steyr was even the start and destination of a stage for the first time. In addition, Tuesday evening, July 8, from 6.30 p.m., the presentation of the twenty participating teams, including seven World Tour- and one Pro Continental team, will also take place with a total of 140 drivers in the Steyr Center. “This is the icing on the cake of this sporting highlight for our city,” says Baumgarten: “We have a really bike -crazy audience here. The city square will shake again at the target.” And of course Steyr is ready to play an important role in the anniversary tour in the coming year.
2433 vertical meters to Steyr
But let’s stay with the current issue of the “Tour of Austria”, which rolls on July 9 at 11 a.m. in Steyr. Rolling is only briefly rolled on the 168 -kilometer starting stage with 2433 meters of altitude. “The first sprint rating is already in Bad Hall, the second in Micheldorf,” says Steyr team boss Dominik Hrinkow, “the field is guaranteed to leave at the beginning with a hell.” Only then do the Mountain Reviews Vorderstoder and Upholsterer Kogel are followed by criteria in which the first preliminary decisions can be made. But it was only after the first start-finish crossing in Steyr that the popular highlight of the stage follows at cycling fans: “The Porscheberg with a gradient of 21 percent is the executioner who will finally split up the field,” says organizer and Steyr’s “bike mayor” Alexander Hrinkow. Upper Austria’s cycling president Paul Resch is also looking forward to this: “This will be a slaughter. I wish the Ricci Zoidl from the Steyrer Hrinkow team that he can place himself at the front with these many mountains. But it will be very difficult, because the tour has never been so strong.”
But what does Austria’s current mountain master and the last domestic tour winner say about these hopes that are placed in him? “The audience in Steyr is always euphoric, so I’m particularly looking forward to this home stage,” says Riccardo Zoidl, who is on one of the green-black bikes from Steyr for the first time: “At the start, an extremely hard and spectacular stage for fans can also be losing a lot of time.” Personally, he is also looking forward to the royal stage, the fourth section of Innsbruck on the Kühtai: “I lived in Innsbruck for two years, for me it is like a local mountain.” The mountain jersey in the overall ranking is therefore a goal.
A very special even, as team boss Hrinkow adds: “We have never had that. After twice Glockner king, that would be the crowning glory for us this year.”
Source: Nachrichten
