Jan Hirt completed the very hard 9-day race Tour of Austria on the podium. He finished the last stage in the peloton and secured third place in the general classification. 

"It’s a very big success for me, the biggest in my career. Tour of Austria is a prestigious event with many good riders so I can be proud of that result," Jan Hirt explained. "The last few stages were quite stressful for me and the team, since first we had to protect the yellow jersey and then the podium spot.

"Yesterday we had to do a big effort to chase down the escape, because Brent Bookwalter, who was a GC threat, was part of the leading group. Also today my teammates and I had to strongly contribute to the pace-setting, since Egor Silin, who was dangerous in terms of the overall standings, was in the break. In addition to that, I crashed on the descent at fast speed, but I managed to come out of this with no serious injuries and I got back to the group.

"Thankfully it all ended well for us and we maintained the podium place in the GC. I want to thank all my teammates who were protecting me throughout the entire 9 days of racing. They deserve a lot of credit and I wouldn’t be able to finish in Top 3 without them."