Within almost 24 hours, Matthias Brändle (IAM) scored two gold medals at the Austrian Championships. After yesterday's title in the time trial, Brändle prevailed in a die-hard finish sprint against Gregor Mühlberger (Bora) in Straßwalchen to claim his first Austrian road race title.

In recent years, Matthias Brändle has earned a reputation as a time trial specialist but he is actually a great road racer too. In 2014, he won two stages at the Tour of Britain and last year he emerged as the strongest on a stage of the Tour of Oman. Today he made use of the same skills to take his first Austrian road race title.

The championship proved to be a battle between the eleven professionals from foreign teams as they occupied the first four places on the hilly, twisty course in Straßwalchen. Due to the long distance (202km), a domestic quartet, led by Amplatz captain Maximilian Kuen, got clear in the early part and built a lead of more than five minutes.

At the midpoint, after four of eight laps, the chasers increased the speed and a group of six with defending champion Marco Haller (Katusha), eventual winner Matthias Brändle  Gregor Mühlberger, Michael Gogl (Tinkoff) and Clemens Fankhauser (Tirol). This group started the last lap (25km) with a gap of about three minutes and they stayed together until a few kilometers.

In the finale, the escapees started to attack each other and Fankhauser and Haller were left behind. The race came down to a three-rider sprint and it was Brändle who claimd a maiden gold medal by holding off Mühlberger and Gogl. Haller arrived 34 seconds later, with Fankhauser taking fifth 8 seconds further adrift.

Brändle has not been selected for the Tour de France but could make his debut in his new jersey in the Tour of Austria on home soil.