Hochenwarter bests Brems in opening stage

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Austria's Uwe Hochenwarter (Muskelkater Genesis Team) won a shortened opening stage with a slender five-second gap over runner-up Bjorn Brems (G-SKIN Deforche) and a near three-minute margin over his Muskelkater Genesis teammate Matthias Leisling.

Snow and thick fog on the highest peak of the course, temperatures not much higher than zero degrees Celsius and intense and constant rain were forecast for the 12th International Alpentour Trophy's opening stage. However, the weather turned out much better than initially predicted and the 270 competitors on the start line only had to combat the aftermath of the rainfall from previous days.

The 65km course took the racers onto the Hochwurzenalm and into the Untertal on muddy terrain, as the original trail routing via the Ursprungalm and the Giglach Lakes had to be changed at short notice because of excessive snow above the elevation of 2,000 metres.

Five racers quickly took the lead after the start of the race, all among the final top-seeded riders at the finish. Behind them seven solo athletes tried to keep up individually. During the first lap the slippery track conditions were most suitable for Uwe Hochenwarter and whilst still wheel-to-wheel with the Belgians Tim Wynants and Bjorn Brems, he decided to attack the group at the second ascent towards Hochwurzen. "I was feeling great before the ascent today and knew that things would work out for me. For a moment I hesitated when Tim suddenly broke away. But then I pushed on and rode ahead. It was tough, but great at the same time," said the 23-year-old rider from Carinthia.

"I was a bit surprised by the long duration of the race," said Brems, who came in second and also admitted that he wasn't the strongest in the group in the end.

Austrian National Champion Hannes Metzler was considered one of the favorites to finish on the podium, but suffered bad luck when he was slowed down on his second lap due to problems with his shifters. Metzler dropped off the leading group onto ninth place. "I had to manually adjust the chain after each downhill section, which of course cost me a lot of time. But tomorrow is another day," said Metzler, still keen to compete.

The Ukrainian delegation dominated the women's field. Natalia Krompets won today's stage ahead of Yana Belomoyna, even though the 22-year-old inadvertently thought the race to be over after her first lap. Back at the team headquarter she realised her mistake and caught up brilliantly throughout the remaining lap. Third place was also claimed by Ukraine's Viktoria Sultanova to complete the team's sweep of the podium.