TOUR Transalp
Favourites Glorieux and Michels Prevail in Opening Stage
Press Release / 26.06.2017
The main aspirants for the 2017 TOUR Transalp title Frederic Glorieux and Bob Michels have claimed victory on the opening stage of the one-week stage race for the Average Joe thanks to a successful sprint on the home stretch. Team Prostyle-Grinta! mastered the 136.15 km and 2,352 metres of climbing from Sonthofen to Imst – with the clock being stopped on the peak of Hahntennjoch – in a time of 3:51.24.
The two racers from Belgium, who had missed the overall win two years ago by the tiny mere of 7.2 seconds, therefore edged off Mathias Nothegger and Hans Peter Obwaller of www.nom-training.com to the second overall – however, the two Austrians celebrated the win in the masters category in 3:51.29.
Italians Stefano Cecchini and Guiseppe Savio of Team Privée (3:51.43) as well as Austrians Daniel Pechtl and Thomas Gschnitzer of Team Imst Tourismus 2 (3:52.01) rounded out the men's podium as second and third, respectively.
That the opening stage of the classic event through the Alps would be decided in a photo finish was obvious quite early as a group of 30 teams had set the pace together on the first half of the opening stage, which led from the most southern city of Germany through the Tannheim Valley and via four cols to Austria in the pouring rain.
Things got more interesting when the first attacks were set in the descent from Gaichtpass when the later on second ranked men duo from Italy was able to temporarily break away – but in the end, it was the climb to the Hahntennjoch (1,894 m), this race week's first real climb, which brought the decision.
“We didn't really expect to win today. But when you get the chance to do so, you have to grab it. And that's what we did,” explained Bob Michels, who was able to break away with his companion on the last metres relegating the top masters team to the runner-up position.
Beaten by only five second, Hans Peter Obwaller – however – wasn't disappointed at all. “Unlike the last weeks, we were facing rainy conditions over the whole course of the day. You really had to adjust to this weather situation. But it was a great start to the week for us,” said the 2015 masters winner.
Same for Daniel Pechtl who is racing for the stage town team of Imst: “It's always something special to compete on home soil. You know the course, and you get a lot of positive feedback along the road. But thanks God the timing stopped on the peak of Hahntennoch. Going down through this conditions in a race situation would have been gnarly.”
In the end, the third place in the men category was tantamount to a perfect comeback at the world's biggest stage race for amateurs as the Tyrolean had crashed badly on last year's final stage sustaining a broken collar bone.
The masters podium was rounded out by Team corratec 1 with Stefan Oettl (GER) and Bart Bury in second (3:53.29) as well as Bart Bruynickx and Philippe Van Laethem of Team Smallings #GFTbe in third (4:03.17).
French athletes Michel Roux and Stephane Cheylan of Scott vélo101 Risoul dominated the grand masters classifier in 3:56.39 while defending champions Daniela Pintarelli (AUT) and Andreas Traxl (AUT) of Team Mooserwirt – traxlradsport.at were victorious in the mixed category.
In the women's event, Italy's very own Letizia Grottoli and Marcellina Dossi of Team montura garda trentino lived up to the expectations of being the top favourites for the win in 4:34.57.
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