On May 10th, the organiser of the Tour of Austria published on a press conference the routing on which participants will cycle between July 6 and 12. Also Gebrüder Weiss will be there, and will be in charge of the logistics during this race right across Austria. Moreover the company will award the orange jersey to the “Best Austrian”, the Austrian cyclist who is in the lead in the overall assessment after each stage.
The statistics for the Tour of Austria are impressive: every day, five trucks will move about 200 tons of materials, and about 2,500 meters of crowd barrier and 25 kilometers of banner wall have to be set up and dismantled each day. The tour retinue consists of about 570 people who will require in total 2,850 beds over the course of the race and will cover a distance of about 100,000 kilometers.
The 71st issue of Austria’s biggest cycling event features a prologue and six stages across the five provinces Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Salzburg and Tyrol. The tour victory is expected for the last day at Kitzbüheler Horn this year.
“This year’s route involves less mountains compared to last year, but it’s not to be underestimated. We will present amazing regions of Austria, and expecially the last days will demand everything from the cycle pros,” says tour director Franz Steinberger. A total of 876.5 kilometres and 16,322 metres in height difference makes the 2019 tour the shortest one in its 71 years history.
20 teams of seven cyclists each will be competing in the 71st Tour of Austria. In addition to WorldTeams, such as the Polish team CCC of former tournament winner Riccardo Zoidl, also Professional Continental teams will start, e.g. the team Israel Cycling Academy of last year’s winner Ben Hermans. Also all six domestic Continental teams (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleang, Maloja Pushbikers, Sport.Land.Niederösterreich Selle SMP – St. Rich, Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels, Team Vorarlberg Santic and Tirol KTM Cycling Team) will participate.
As in the previous year, the red Flyeralarm lead jersey will grace the overall leader this year. In addition to the “Mautner Markhof” sprint and the “Wiesbauer” mountain jersey, Gebrüder Weiss again acts as sponsor for the best Austrian wearing orange. For the first time in the history of the tour ex-professional and organiser Martin Fischerlehner appears as a jersey supplier with his brand “Mach1”.
In the 71-year history of the Tour of Austria, the cycling fans were able to cheer 34 red-white-red overall winners. This year Riccardo Zoidl from WorldTeam CCC and Stephan Rabitsch (Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels) wanted to have a say.
