Cycling: The great triumphator on the 3rd stage of the 66th Int. Tour of Austria from Bad Ischl to the Kitzbüheler Horn is Dayer Quintana, the brother of this year's Colombian Giro d'Italia winner Nario Quintana. Pete Kennaugh extended his overall lead with third place on the stage, and Austrian Patrick Konrad again showed a strong performance and moved up to fifth place in the overall standings!
In perfect cycling weather, the third and, at 206 kilometers, longest stage of this year's Ö-Tour started in the imperial city of Bad Ischl. Right after the start there was a heavy attack, until shortly before the first "Wiesbauer" climb at Pass Gschütt, after around 25 kilometers, a leading group formed. Present were Guillaume Levarlet (Cofidis), Francis De Greef (Wanty), Jan Tratnik (Amplatz BMC), Dmitriy Kozonchuk (Katusha), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Matej Mohoric (Cannondale), Jeremy Bescond (Cofidis), Dayer Quintana (Movistar). ) and Rory Sutherland (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Davide Villella (Cannondale). They quickly extended their lead, after 75 kilometers it was already ten minutes!
From the half of the race distance the speed in the peloton increased and from the "lottery" sprint classification in Zell am See the lead leveled off at around four minutes. The closer Kitzbühel got, the more the gap in the field melted and the more miserable the weather became.
After a 200-kilometer race, the hard chunk of the Kitzbüheler Horn awaited at the end of the stage, the 7,1-kilometer climb with an altitude difference of 865 meters and a maximum gradient of 22,3 percent. While it was pouring rain on the Horn and visibility was reduced to a minimum due to the heavy fog, the field was already less than two minutes behind when they entered Kitzbühel.
Soon after the ascent to the Alpenhaus, the peak and the field cleared up. While Quintana, the brother of the Giro winner Nairo, was able to break away in front, Rory Sutherland managed to catch up with the pursuers Levarlet and De Greff. Behind in the chasing field, overall leader Pete Kennaugh was on his own. With four kilometers to go, mountain goat Quintana was 40 seconds ahead of the chasing trio, with the yellow jersey group 1:32 behind. In the pouring rain, the last three kilometers became a hand-to-hand fight. While Quintana rode to a comfortable stage win, Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) finished second, 54 seconds back from joint leader Pete Kennaugh. Behind Quintana's Movistar team colleague Javier Moreno, Patrick Konrad from Gourmetfein Simplon was again the best Austrian in fifth place. As the second best Austrian on the Horn, Trek professional Riccardo Zoidl ended up eleventh.
The only 21-year-old Colombian Dayer Quintana celebrated his first major professional win today: "It's a dream for me and I'll call my brother right away. My whole family is happy with me. The weather wasn't a problem for me. I was part of the escape group from the start and it's always a lottery to decide whether the attack will work. That was the case today.”
Overall leader Pete Kennaugh, who leads Damiano Caruso by 29 seconds and Javier Moreno by 40 in the standings, delivered another strong race: “My teammates gave me great support and from the 3 kilometer mark I was on my own. It was another great race for our team.” A completely soaked Patrick Konrad was also beaming: “I'm actually a fair-weather driver, but luckily it wasn't too cold on the Horn. I'm happy about fifth place and I'm going into the next few days with a lot of confidence."
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