Known as a climber, Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin) proved that he is fully ready for his first Tour de France when he took a surprise win in the Austrian TT championships. He beat pre-race favourite Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) while Florian Bissinger (WSA) was 1.15 behind in third.

Preidler has mostly excelled on the climbs and so he was not expected to beat a specialist like Zoidl on the 26.3km course in Sulz im Burgenland. However, the Giant-Alpecin talent has clearly reached top form for the Tour as he stopped the clock in 32.06 to take a convincing victory.

Two-time champion and former record holder Matthias Brändle (IAM) had decided to skip the race and this opened the door for a new champion to be crowned.

Preidler will again be one of the favourites on Sunday when the road race takes place.