While a portion of the professional peloton will be negotiating the streets of the Tour de France, other riders will be taking advantage of the freshness and altitude found at the Tour of Austria.  Renowned for offering its share of peaks, making climbers happy, this race offers nine days of competition with no fewer than twenty categorized climbs and two mountain top finishes. 

However, the rider who eventually will climb to the top step of the podium on Sunday, July 12th, will not only have to show his skills when the road kicks up.  In order to succeed, it will take a strong and united team around a leader who will be able to keep up on the flatter stages, as well as having the entire team perform well during the prologue team time trial on the opening stage in Vienna. 

“For me, whoever wins will obviously have to be a great climber,” David Tanner explained.  “Since there is no time trial except for the first Saturday, and that won’t count for the general classification, the list of potential winners is already limited for this event.”

But speaking of favorites, IAM Cycling will have a few riders in hand who could finish well in the overall.  With Thomas Degand, who was 10th last year in the Tour of Austria, and Stefan Denifl, who has finished eighth in 2009 and seventh in 2010, the Swiss team will have the opportunity to focus on stage wins as well as the overall classification. 

“For me personally, this is not really the ideal course,” the Australian Tanner confided.  “But I still have marked two stages where I can potentially try something.  I was not great at the Dauphiné, but now I don’t think I am far from my best form. 

"But looking at the team in general, I think that IAM Cycling can hope to have a strong result in the Tour of Austria.  I was following the Tour of Switzerland, and I could see that Stefan Denifl is in great condition.  Now he will be racing at home, and I think that he not only has the desire, but also the capacity to have a good race in Austria.  And honestly, I can’t see anything standing in the way.”

Riders:

Thomas Degand (BEL)

Dries Devenyns (BEL)

Clément Chevrier (FR)

Sondre Holst Enger (NOR)

David Tanner (AUS)

Larry Warbasse (USA)

Patrick Schelling (S)

Stefan Denifl (AUT)