Oliver Zaugg was selected for the Tinkoff-Saxo Tour de France team but today he proved that it may have been a good choice by the management to include him on the roster. The former Il Lombardia winner finished second in the very hard first stage of the Tour of Austria.

Today Tinkoff-Saxo’s delegation in Austria took on the grueling 182 kilometer long first stage of Tour of Austria from Tulln to the uphill finish on Sonntagberg. However, it was no Sunday picnic for the riders and the GC riders were forced to perform on this initial stage in order to have a decent chance to win.
 
Nicki Sørensen, Pawel Poljanski, Oliver Zaugg, Jay MCarthy, Ivan Rovny, Rory Sutherland, Evgeny Petrov and Jesper Hansen represent Tinkoff-Saxo in Austria but none of those riders participated in the five men break that dominated the stage. In the pack, Sky picked up the pace to reel the front group back in with 14 kilometers to go.
 
Going up the Sonntagberg the British road race champion, Peter Kennaugh (Sky) launched the crucial attack but Tinkoff-Saxo’s Oliver Zaugg did well to finish second on the stage.

"We tried to get in the first breakaway but eventually the five riders moved up the road. With 30 kilometers to go, there was a category 3 climb where the peloton split up and we had a few guys in the first group to put Oliver in a good position for the final and very steep climb. Oliver demonstrates that he's our guy for the GC and were targeting a good overall result. Tomorrow's stage will probably be a sprint but there are a few bumps along the way and we'll try to put Jay (McCarthy) in a good position for the finale," says DS, Tristan Hoffman.