Aqua Blue Sport has won the Tour of Austria; taking the yellow jersey with two stages remaining and defending it against an onslaught from the WorldTour teams (All photos by Aqua Blue Sport)
Aqua Blue Sport seals epic Tour of Austria win
Aqua Blue Sport has taken a huge victory at the Tour of Austria. The Irish ProContinental team has won the race outright with its Austrian rider Stefan Denifl.
After the conclusion of the race yesterday he said he was really thankful to his team for making his win possible.
“I want to say thanks also to the Austrian fans, to my girlfriend – it was just amazing,” he said.
“It is my biggest win, it was about to happen for a long time. I am getting close to 30 years – I have been sometimes close to something big.
“Now I am just super happy and proud that I was able to finish it off today.”
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He rode a fantastic final few stages to hold the yellow jersey he had taken on the summit finish last Thursday.
On Friday he came under attack, with Astana rider Angel Lopez (Astana) going up the road and becoming yellow jersey on the road for a period.
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Lopez had won Thursday’s stage 4 atop Kitzbüheler Horn, with Denifl just behind in 2nd place and taking the race lead.
However, Lopez showed he was up for the challenge the following day when he dropped Denifl on the Grossglockner Pass.
However, the Aqua Blue Sport man ripped down the 18km descent and caught Lopez, ensuring he kept his jersey on a day when the race split to pieces.
Yesterday on the final stage the riders face another mountainous route; 203km from Saint Johann–Alpenbdorf to Wels.
Katusha-Alpecin would split the field on the cat 2 ascent of Hochlecken. Denifl’s team mates had ridden hard for him since he took the jersey, but on the climb they were dropped.
He had only Daniel Pearson to call on for help as the peloton thinned right down to about 40 riders.
However, as that group entered the finishing circuits in Wels, Denifl hit the front to show the yellow jersey off to the home crowd.
And two laps later he was sailing over the finish line to celebrate a brilliant victory in the UCI 2.1 ranked event.
Not only was the win Aqua Blue Sport’s first general classification win, the race also represented the first time it had held a yellow jersey in a stage race.
In the end Denifl won by 37 seconds from Delio Fernandez (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), with Lopez 3rd at 59 seconds.
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