Zoidl against Maire

Thrilling duel on the last stage of the Tour of Upper Austria

On the exciting third and final stage of the 14th Tour of Upper Austria, there was a turnaround in the overall standings. 

Riccardo Zoidl (Felt) and the Frenchman Adrien Maire fought a duel for the day's and overall victory on the final climb with a summit finish on the Höss in Hinterstoder. The 23-year-old Unibet pro won in 3:53.02 hours, two seconds ahead of Zoidl. In the overall standings, the Upper Austrian was 23 seconds behind Maire.

"We rode really well as a team. I did relatively well tactically," said Zoidl on ORF. One kilometer before the finish, he noticed that Maire might show some weakness. "I hoped that I could get closer with bonus seconds, but he was the strongest. I would have liked to have won the stage, but I'm still very satisfied."

Bitter finish for Dockx
Zoidl tried to attack on the last kilometer of the two breakaways, but was caught by Maire again. The previous leader Aaron Dockx, who had started the 152.5 km stage from St. Florian/Asten to Hinterstoder with a 25-second lead, lost his yellow jersey on the final ascent of around ten kilometers and dropped back to third place.

The next best Austrians were Martin Messner (WSA) and Zoidl's Felt teammate Hermann Pernsteiner in eleventh and twelfth place overall. Like Zoidl, they will also be competing in the Tour of Austria (July 2-7), for which Felix Großschartner and Olympic track starter Tim Wafler have also entered.