Ambivalent.

On the one hand this fantastic week. At our opening press conference on March 8th, 2023 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, we promised that the Tour of Austria would roll again this summer. We have kept this promise. But the fact that the restart of the tour went so well and that we cycled from Dornbirn to the Basilica am Sonntagberg on a wave of enthusiasm through our beautiful Austria also exceeded our expectations.

On the other hand, we cannot be satisfied with our team’s performance at the Tour of Austria. Unfortunately, as with the Giro U23, we didn’t manage to set any decisive accents in the race. First-year-olds like Simen Hegreberg, Mattie Dodd and David Preyler fought dutifully to the end and were able to reward themselves with the finish on the pulsating Sunday mountain. Nothing more was to be expected here. Marco Schrettl hasn’t fully recovered from his fall at the Giro U23. Alexander Hajek was actually doing well until the finish of the 4th stage in Steyr, but then he was involved in a stupid crash that forced him to retire. And Linus Rosner and Paul Buschek were also unable to meet the expectations they had set themselves.

The Erlauf Valley Cycling Days took place in Wieselburg this weekend. Paul Buschek won the criterium on Saturday, Linus Rosner finished sixth in Sunday’s Bundesliga race over 161 kilometers. We congratulate Emanuel Zangerle (Felbermayr Wels) for his victory.