Tuesday, July 2, 2024 at 2:55 PM
The prologue of the Tour of Austria (2.1) was not won by Filippo Ganna. The Italian of INEOS Grenadiers had to acknowledge his superiority over a distance of three kilometers in the 19-year-old Cameron Rogers, the nephew of former professional Michael Rogers. Tomáš Kopecký finished third.
In the shadow of the Tour de France, the 73rd edition of the Tour of Austria started today in Sankt Pölten. In the capital of the state of Lower Austria, a prologue of three kilometers was planned, on billiard-flat and not too technical roads. With Filippo Ganna, Magnus Sheffield, Luke Plapp, Rui Oliveira and Sjoerd Bax, there were quite a few interesting names at the start, but who would realize the fastest time at the finish?
Good times for TDT-Unibet
The first real benchmark time, however, was set by a rider from Tour de Tietema-Unibet. Adam Ťoupalík, who we also know from cyclo-cross, raced with an average of just under 48 kilometres per hour (47.792 km/h) over the course and finished after 3’46” and managed to outdo famous names such as Diego Ulissi, Andrew August and Michael Gogl. Ťoupalík was allowed to take a seat in the hot seat for a while, but was quickly outpaced again.
That it could be even faster was proven by a certain Niklas Behrens. The 20-year-old rider from the Lidl-Trek development team – winner of the Youngster Coast Challenge earlier this year and the reigning German road champion among the promises – finished almost four seconds under Ťoupalík’s time. With a time of 3’42” he was good for an average of no less than 48.603 kilometers per hour.
The youth has the final say
Behrens’ time was also wiped off the tables, however, by a teammate. Cameron Rogers, a 19-year-old Australian, was four seconds faster and made an emphatic bid for the day’s victory with 3’38”. The young Rogers then saw one rider after the other bite their teeth on his time, but was still far from certain of victory. He still had to wait for the arrival of three big names: Felix Großschartner, Luke Plapp and – last but not least – Philip Ganna.
These riders seemed to be able to threaten Rogers’ time and even improve it. Großschartner also came close to the top time, but turned out to be two seconds too slow at the finish. Plapp disappointed and finished in the middle. And Ganna? The Italian pacemaker from Verbania made a serious attempt to dethrone Rogers, but was one second behind.
It’s massive shock says the man himself. Fantastic start for this year’s Tour of Austria, love big surprises like this one 👍 #TourofAustria pic.twitter.com/HKQN4Q1a6q
— Eemeli (@LosBrolin) July 2, 2024
Rogers can breathe a sigh of relief: the nephew of former professional and three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers booked his first professional victory. Ganna came second, Tomáš Kopecký set the third fastest time on behalf of TDT-Unibet. Tomorrow, the first stage in line in the Tour of Austria will follow. A hilly course has been set out in the area around Bad Tatzmannsdorf.
2024-07-02 12:55:00
#Michael #Rogers #nephew #surprises #Ganna #Tour #Austria #prologue #Tomáš #Kopecký
