Oscar Gatto (Cannondale) finally broke his drought and took his first win in Cannondale colours when he emerged as the fastest in the bunch sprint at the end of the second stage of the Tour of Austria. The Italian beat Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and local hero Marco Haller (Katusha) in the final dash to the line while Peter Kennaugh (Sky) defended his lead on the eve of the queen stage.

Cannondale signed Oscar Gatto as a key support rider for Peter Sagan in the classics but the Italian team was also hopeful that the Italian could pick up a few wins himself. Until today, however, Gatto has not had his best season and his Giro d’Italia ended as a big disappointment.

Today he finally started to pay back his management for their confidence when he won the second stage of the Tour of Austria. Despite not being known as a pure sprinter, he emerged as the strongest in the bunch kick that was the inevitable outcome of the mostly flat stage.

After the hilly opening stage, the race continued with a 180.9km stage from Waidhofen to Bad Ischl and apart from three small category 4 climbs, there were no major challenges on the course. The finish was completely flat and so the stage was expected to give the sprinters their first chance to shine.

The early break was established almost straight from the gun when Sebastian Schönberger, (Gourmet Simplon), Hans-Jörg Leopold (WSA Greenlife), Stephan Rabitsch (Amplatz BMC), Frederik Backaert (Wanty Groupe Gobert) and KOM leader Maxim Belkov (Katusha) got clear. They were allowed to build an advantage that reached a maximum of 5 minutes before the peloton started to chase.

The gap went down to around 4 minutes where it was kept stable for most of the day. Meanwhile, Belkov made sure to win all three KOM sprints to extend his lead in the mountains classification while Backaert won two of the intermediate sprints and Schönberger took the final one.

Sky and Astana had taken control in the peloton and as they neared the finish, they upped the pace. With 54km to go, the gap was down to just 2.15 and with 25km to go, it was just a minute.

Backaert decided to attack on his own and he did a great job to stay away for a little while but with 10km to go, it was back together. Sky and Katusha set the pace as they prepared the bunch sprint but in the end, Gatto emerged as the fastest.

Race leader Peter Kennaugh finished safely within the bunch to defend his 15-second lead over Oliver Zaugg (Tinkoff-Saxo). Tomorrow he faces a much harder test when he takes on the 206km queen stage from Bad Ischl to the top of the feared Kitzbüheler Horn. The stage only has two smaller climbs in the first part to test the riders before it all comes to an exciting close on the HC climb to the finish line.