Evgeny Petrov took his first victory in Tinkoff-Saxo colours when he won today's final mountain stage of the Tour of Austria. The Russian was pleased to prove to both himself and his team that he could finish off his long-distance breakaway.

It was an important day for the GC riders in Tour of Austria today as the peloton set forth in another crucial mountain battle covering three category 1 climbs with a long and steep uphill finish in Villach-Dobratsch. And Tinkoff-Saxo took advantage of the terrain.

Tinkoff-Saxo protected their Swiss rider, Oliver Zaugg who was placed 5th overall before the stage while teammate, Evgeny Petrov took part of the long-lasting break. The powerful climber managed to go solo from the break on the final climb and was now fighting off the chasing bunch and he dug deep in himself to solo his way to the finish line and had time to celebrate the stage after a stunning performance.

Tinkoff-Saxo DS, Tristian Hoffman was thrilled about his rider’s performance:

“We had a feeling a breakaway could make it all the way and Evgeny seized the moment and established a break with four other riders. At the bottom of the final climb, he was alone in the front and the gap to the chasers kept growing on the slope while the peloton was narrowing the gap down so it was a very exciting few kilometers in the finale. However, Evgeny was super strong and he maintained the gap while his previous breakaway companions were swept up by the GC riders,” said DS, Hoffman.

And naturally, Petrov was thrilled as well:

“It was a very long day as we created the break after only 5 kilometers so I was out there for 177 kilometers. I’m extremely happy about the result proving to myself that I was in fact possible to pull it off and of course, I’m happy that we as a team now have a good result on our hands. Now, we’re still focusing on the GC and I’ll do what I can to support Oliver,” said Evgeny Petrov after the podium ceremony.

Oliver Zaugg finished 5th on today’s stage and thereby moved up to third position overall. Tomorrow, the Tour of Austria peloton are doing a 24.1 kilometer long and flat individual time trial.