For the fourteenth time the Tour of Austria included the Kitzbüheler Horn. With beautiful weather yesterday's stage winner Kevin Seeldraeyers celebrated an impressive solo victory in front of his Astana teammates Alexandr Dyachenko and Fabio Aru.
The second stage started in front of the regional theatre in Innsbruck at very high speed.
After several attacks three riders succeeded in breaking away from the field. In addition to the Italians Federico Canuti (Cannondale) and Alessandro Malaguti (Androni) the Tyrol-pro Harald Totschnig was represented. Halfway through the race, the trio had built up a seven minutes lead.
The speed increased as the peloton approached the 7.1 km long Kitzbüheler Horn which boasts a maximum gradient of 22.3 percent. Both the Astana team and team Gourmetfein Simplon with Riccardo Zoidl were involved at the front of the peloton. Just before the climb the lead of the breakaway group was already under two minutes when Harald Totschnig jumped clear but about four kilometres from the finish he fatigued and so he had to bury his hopes of a stage victory.
Just before the 3km mark Dyachenko, Edet and Kvasina placed themselves near the front. A few metres behind a 15-man group fought to connect with all the favourites at the front. Seeldraeyers increased the tempo, overtook and sat down with his teammates Alexandr Dyachenko and Fabio Aru on the top. Yesterday's stage winner Seeldraeyers won 5 seconds ahead of Dyachenko and 14 ahead of Aru. Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Dries Devenyns was fourth, followed by the Austrian Riccardo Zoidl.
"Today I had really strong legs and I cannot believe it, a 2nd stage victory within almost 24 hours," said the Belgian Seeldraeyers according to the official race website. Seeldraeyers now leads Dyachenko by 43 seconds and Zoidl by 59 seconds.
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