On Friday, the Tour of Austria peloton faced an even tougher mountain finish than in previous days. On the Salzburg–Salzburg stage, they covered nearly three thousand meters of elevation gain, culminating in a mountain finish.
There were several crashes in the rain, but luckily, Team United Shipping was spared any misfortune. However, TUS didn’t make it into the breakaway on the third stage either. A maximum of forty riders arrived together at the foot of the final climb. Among them was Bálint Feldhoffer, who, however, was dropped from the leading group, led by UAE, at the base of the seven-kilometer ascent.
Bálint eventually finished in fortieth place, ten minutes behind. Isaac Del Toro won the stage.
Bálint Feldhoffer after Salzburg:
“The pace was high today, maybe we went faster than if it didn’t rain. It obviously wasn’t a good feeling to ride in the cold rain all day. Fortunately, the bunch is professional, so there were no falls and we rode smart on the slopes. My performance was mostly influenced by the weather, but of course my illness last week didn’t help either, but the main problem was that I got cold and my legs weren’t feeling very well because of it. In the end, I broke away in the last 5 km, the UAE dictated a very strong pace.”
The youngest, Máté Endrédi, on his experiences of the three days:
“Since the breakaway hasn’t worked out so far, today there were six of us trying to get in. It’s been a big fight to get in on every stage so far, the World Tour teams were in control the whole time. Unfortunately, none of us were in the winning move today either. However, it’s much harder to get into a breakaway here than in the usual races.
It rained all day and it was cold, but all the team members ride well in the rain; it especially suits us. We are much faster on the descents and in the corners than most of the peloton. Fortunately, I didn’t see many crashes, although I tried to be as far in the front as possible. I don’t know if there were any crashes further back.
This is my first race where I’m competing with the best riders in the world, and this feeling is incomprehensible to me. Wherever I look in the bunch, I see people who I used to cheer for on TV at the biggest races in the world…”
📷Photos: Gergely Schöff