Week-long race to welcome Pozzato, include U25 classification
Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) speaks to Tour of Austria organiser Ursula Riha (Image credit: Tour of Austria)
The Austrian national tour Österreich-Rundfahrt, taking place from July 4-11, was presented on Monday. The 62nd edition of the race will see top stars of the sport such as Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) take part, and see a new classification for the best rider under 25 years of age.
The 1,147km-long event (UCI Cat. 2.HC) will take the international peloton from Dornbirn to Vienna and include two summit finishes as well as an individual time trial on the penultimate day. The first summit finish comes on stage two, as riders will have to climb the Kitzbüheler Horn at 1,670 metres above sea level. After a transitional stage linking two Ski World Cup locations, stage four will be the queen stage of the event with the Grossglockner mountain looming at 2,323 metres.
After another two transistional stages, the general classification will then be decided in Podersdorf with a 26.4km-long, perfectly flat time trial, before the tour ends in Vienna on July 11.
A total of 144 riders from eight ProTour, seven Professional Continental and three Austrian Continental teams will line up at the event, and race organiser Ursula Riha was happy to announce that a new U25 classification has been created to honour the best young riders. "We want to give our young and aggressive Austrian riders the opportunity to make a great showing in an international field," said Riha.
The complete list of participating teams is expected to be announced soon, with Katusha's Pozzato already one of the official stars of the stage race taking place at the same time as the Tour de France.
The stages of the 62nd Österreich-Rundfahrt are as follows:
Stage 1 - July 4: Dornbirn - Bludenz, 150.7 km Stage 2 - July 5: Landeck - Kitzbüheler Horn, 174.3 km Stage 3 - July 6: Kitzbühel - Lienz, 145 km Stage 4 - July 7: Lienz - Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, 146.2 km Stage 5 - July 8: Bleiburg - Deutschlandsberg, 150.3 km Stage 6 - July 9: Deutschlandsberg - Laxenburg, 231.8 km Stage 7 - July 10: Podersdorf am Neusiedler See (ITT), 26.3 km Stage 8 - July 11: Podersdorf am Neusiedler See - Wien/Burgtheater, 122.8 km
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