Tour of the Alps: Michael Storer eclipses Thymen Arensman in mountainous finale to claim overall victory

Michael Storer (Tudor) produced another stunning performance to claim overall victory at the Tour of the Alps on stage 5, launching an attack out of the GC group 34km from the finish and dropping overnight leader Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) to wrest back the green jersey he ceded one day prior.

Arensman, who started the day with an 11-second lead on Storer, tried to follow the Australian on the penultimate climb, but after a full gas lead-out by Tudor and a massive effort by Florian Stork, he was quickly a minute behind when Storer launched his move.

Storer had the added help of Lukas Eriksson to pace him to the foot of the final climb, having made it into a large 15-man early breakaway, who played a key part in extending his lead to more than a minute over Arensman at the finish line to confirm the GC win.

Further up the road, two men who were also part of the early move, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's Paul Seixas and Nicolas Prodhomme, proved to be the strongest of the 15 escapees and attacked away on the final ascent to Stronach with a 1:30 lead over the charging Storer.

The French pair rode into the Lienz finish in tandem, with a first pro win on offer for both of them. However, it was the loyal 28-year-old domestique Prodhomme who crossed the line first and took that maiden victory in a great 1-2 with the 18-year-old super talent Seixas.

Storer crossed the finish line 1:20 behind the French duo after dominating the remainder of the GC field, with Arensman's dogged defence not enough to bring him the victory. He finished second overall, applauding and taking his hat off to Storer at the finish.

"[I'm] super, super happy with my week. I just wish it was a little bit less complicated of a race. I literally had to attack every single day," said Storer, describing a hard-fought week of GC racing.

Storer named each of his teammates individually as he celebrated the win, with the Giro d'Italia set, of course, as his and the team's next big goal.

"The guys were incredible today. We were a well-oiled machine, we didn't put one foot wrong, and I have to thank every single member of the team," said the Australian.

"I'm definitely in good shape and hopefully I can continue in this way to the Giro."

How it unfolded

The final stage of the 2025 Tour of the Alps kicked off with racing still well in the balance, and 112.2km of action starting and finishing in Lienz still to contend with. After a brutal fourth stage, Arensman only had a slim 11-second lead over Storer to defend across the 2,400m.

Once again, there were several attacks right from the flag dropping, despite only 79 of the 100 starters on day one remaining after four days of tough racing in South Tyrol.

Ahead of the first categorised climb, Bannberg (4.8km at 9.2%), a 15-rider group got away from the front of the peloton: Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek), Fran Miholjević, Finlay Pickering (Bahrain - Victorious), Matteo Vanhuffel (Development Team Picnic PostNL), Ben Zwiehoff, Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla), Paul Seixas, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), Lucas Eriksson (Tudor), Vicente Rojas, Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Mattia Bais (Polti VisitMalta) and Daniel Geismayr (Vorarlberg).

With Seixas' 9:49 deficit to Arensman placing him the closest on GC, there was no threat to Ineos or Tudor, allowing the large group to build up more than a three-minute lead over the first few climbs.

After a descent down into the valley, the gap stabilised at 3:40, ahead of the second ascent up the Bannberg. This is where Tudor made their bid to claim overall victory, with the Swiss team doing a full gas lead-out at the foot of the climb with Storer in the wheel.

The men in black and red made the difference quickly, dropping all of Arensman's teammates and everyone else in the GC group with their initial push. Florian Stork did the final surge, which left only Storer and Arensman on his wheel.

Storer attacked with 34km to go after Stork had already threatened to distance the Dutchman, and he very quickly left Arensman behind on the tree-lined climb.

Action in the break had kicked off simultaneously, with the climbs taking their toll on the riders less suited to the undulating terrain. Eight made it over the second ascent of the Bannberg in a separate group, with Storer 2:55 down and Arensman a further 35 seconds behind.

One of those who dropped out of the break, however, was by design and not legs. Tudor had Eriksson in front, who'd gone away in the large 15-rider break, and he was quickly in front of Storer and protecting him from the wind on the roads that preceded the final Stronach (3.1 km at 12.3%) climb.

Arensman, contrastingly, was all alone and losing time. With 15km to go on stage 5, his deficit to Storer had grown to more than a minute. Eriksson had executed his job perfectly, leaving Storer just 1:50 to try and snatch the stage win from the breakaway.

Seixas looked the strongest out of the break and made his bid for glory with 11.4km remaining. Those behind struggled to follow the junior TT world champion, except for his teammate, Prodhomme, who, after looking at those behind, realised he too was stronger than the rest.

Having bridged across, the two Decathlon riders worked well together and crested the final climb of this year's Tour of the Alps, having held a 1:30 lead from Storer. They would not be denied.

They rode to the finish together, with a decision being made for Prodhomme to take victory in the end, knowing that super talent Seixas is likely to get many more chances to take a first pro victory and several more throughout his career.

Storer continued to push on, right the way through to the finish line, finishing the day in eighth, 1:44 ahead of Arensman in ninth on the day. This confirmed the switch at the top of the overall standings and saw Storer take the overall win in Austria, the third GC title of his career so far.

Results

Results powered by FirstCycling