Two HC and one first-category mountain awaited the Tour of Austria bunch. The breakaway formed late on the fourth, queen stage. However, this time Team United Shipping was included in it! Fetter Erik formed the breakaway with Rui Costa, among others. However, the group’s advantage was never greater than two minutes.
The peloton, led by the UAE, caught the big breakaway, including Fetter Erik on the first HC ascent. The stage was eventually won by Isaac Del Toro, with Michal Schuran finishing 14 minutes behind as the best TUS rider.
Erik’s thoughts:
“We started the stage at a really high pace, it was hard to get into the breakaway today. We started on an uphill, my legs were good, but unfortunately we missed the attack. Luckily, Alpecin brought the breakaway back, but after that the pace was even harder. The attacks were continuous, the bunch was also reduced, but I was able to go away with one attack. But unfortunately, UAE kept the breakaway at one minute, which was frustrating, why they wouldn’t let us go. It wasn’t very good to start the climb like that, but at the beginning we still worked together a bit, we pushed pretty hard. Then a few people broke away, two people attacked, but I believed that if I could just summit, there is still a good chance. Then suddenly UAE appeared behind me and I let it go, because there was no point to push.”
📷Photos: Gergely Schöff