Lukas Pöstlberger got a tow from a media motorbike mid race and even gave an on-the-run interview on his way up to the breakaway. He'd never be caught again.
Lukas Pöstlberger had a great story to tell at the end of Dwars door Vlaanderen to add to his 4th place on the day.
The Austrian, well known and very popular in Ireland as a Rás Tailteann winner, survived from the early breakaway.
He was then joined by the really strong men of the race and finished with them to take fourth of the five riders in the escape.
However, early in the race he had become detached from the initial breakaway when it was caught as the race was stopped.
The organisers needed to get an ambulance passed the men's race to attend to a crash in the women's event.
Advertisement
And so the breakaway, which Pöstlberger was in, was stopped as well as the bunch with 76km to go.
The gap of about 2:15 was closed right down, with the agreement the escape would be allowed to go up ahead and re-establish its lead.
Related News
However, the re-start was chaotic and when the breakaway went ahead, Pöstlberger was still in the bunch.
He finally decided on a way to retake his place in the escape; take a tow from the media moto across the gap. And on his way he even did a live interview.
When the escape split to pieces later in the race, the Austrian stayed clear with Nelson Oliveira (Movistar).
However, when Oliveira punctured with about 30km to go, Pöstlberger found himself leading the race on his own.
He ended up being caught by eventual winner Matthieu van der Poel (Corendon Circus), Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Anthony Turgis (Direct Energie) and Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal).
"It's Belgium and everybody’s going crazy about the positioning," Pöstlberger said of the peloton and his breakaway being brought together when the race was halted.
"If you stop the race at the most important point in the race, it's kind of difficult. I got on the motorbike because I should have been in the break and they weren't waiting for me."
He added if the race commissaire was not able to put the race back together as it had been before the stop, he was allowed take the situation into his own hands.
Topics
