Grossschartner takes advantage of UAE dominance on home soil with victory in first stage of Tour of Austria

The Tour of Austria returned a year after the tragic 2024 edition. Magnus Sheffield was the overall winner back then, but the race was overshadowed by the terrible death of Andre Drege. The Norwegian rider crashed during the descent of the Grossglockner on stage four and passed away that same day. One year later, the focus could finally return to racing, and with an impressive start list (Isaac Del Toro, Rui Costa, Georg Steinhauser, Lennard Kämna...) it promised to be an exciting week of racing.

The hilly first stage was almost a copy of last year’s second stage, won by Brandon Rivera (INEOS Grenadiers). A hilly finale, with the extremely steep Porscheberg as the decisive climb just before the finish, could cause significant damage so early in the race. A breakaway group seemed to have little chance, as the GC riders already had an opportunity. Nevertheless, 12 riders went on the attack.

Such a large group can be quite dangerous. The local Continental teams were well represented: Team Vorarlberg and Tirol KWM each had 3 riders in the move. The only WorldTour rider was Nicolas Vinokourov of XDS-Astana. Even with the son of team boss Alexandre Vinokourov included, it was still an uphill battle for the breakaway: halfway through, their lead was only 2 minutes over the peloton, where UAE Team Emirates – XRG logically set the pace. With Giro runner-up Del Toro in their ranks, they had the top favorite for the overall victory.

The breakaway reached the hilly finale and fell apart there. Four riders, including Vinokourov but also former Jayco rider Alexander Konychev, stayed ahead of the peloton the longest. They were caught with 20 kilometers to go. A counterattack immediately followed from the peloton: Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was joined by Markel Beloki (EF Education – EasyPost), Héctor Álvarez (Lidl-Trek), and Erik Fetter (United Shipping). However, the 15 seconds that the quartet managed to gain was anything but reassuring.

On the Porscheberg, it was up to the favorites. The TV coverage wasn’t great, but we saw that Archie Ryan (EF Education – EasyPost) was the first to reach the top of the climb, which averages 11% gradient. UAE Team Emirates – XRG had Felix Grossschartner and Rafal Majka chasing just a few seconds behind. The other favorites were about 10 seconds further back.

On the descent, the UAE duo caught up with the lone Irishman. The three leaders headed towards the finish together, but the ‘peloton’ was right behind them. Would they stay away? Ryan, of course, didn’t take any turns at the front, which prompted Grossschartner to launch an attack. The team tactics of UAE worked, and so it was the Austrian who claimed the victory and the leader’s jersey on home soil.