Victor de la Parte (Vorarlberg) continued his impressive 2015 season when he took a surprise win in the first mountain stage of the Tour of Austria. Having escaped with Jan Hirt (CCC) on the final climb, he beat his companion in the sprint while Ben Hermans (BMC) was 8 seconds behind in third. Hirt takes the overall lead with a 1-second advantage over Hermans.

At a time when the opportunities in Spain are limited, some of the riders have to chase success in foreign teams. One of the riders to follow a different path is 29-year-old Victor de la Parte who spent one year at Caja Rural before he spent years in Greece and Portugal.

Last year he won the prologuein the Volta a Portugal and that helped him secure a contract with the Austrian Vorarlberg team for the 2015 season. Here he has enjoyed a breakthrough season, most notably with an overall victory in the hard Fleche du Sud stage race.

Riding for an Austrian team, his biggest goal of the year is the Tour of Austria and after he finished third overall and won a stage in the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt, he was mentioned as a possible outsider for the race. However, few would have imagined him to beat all the pro riders in the first mountain stage of the race.

However, de la Parte proved to be stronger than anybody else when they finally reached the mountains after three days for the sprinters. After the peloton had been slowly whittled down on the 17km climb to the finish, the attacking started when Branislau Samoilau (CCC) took off.

However, he was unable to stay clear and instead de la Parte went on the offensive. The Spaniard reached the finish alongside climbing talent Jan Hirt and managed to beat his rival in the sprint. The peloton had split to pieces and it was Ben Hermans who was third at 8 seconds.

"Everything was perfect," de la Parte said. "I didn't know the climb but I could make the decisive attack with Jan Hirt just before the finish. For our Vorarlberg team, this stage win is a dream."