Going into the race as defending champion, Riccardo Zoidl got his race off to a diastrous start but he bounced back with a solid showing in the final mountain stage. The Austrian now hopes to move into the top 5 in the time trial.

The 182.4-kilometer stage six was the final opportunity for the climbers to shine in the Tour of Austria, and Riccardo Zoidl bounced back to his usual climbing form with a fantastic finish, crossing the line with the yellow jersey of Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) for fourth place. Peter Kennaugh confirmed his lead in the overall with a third place finish, two seconds behind Dayer Quintana (Movistar) who placed second.

“I wish I had that level the whole week," Zoidl said. "It gives me motiavtion for tomorrow in the time trial to see what I can do."

“It is a pity that Riccardo had a bad first day and lost two minutes in two kilometers," sports director Dirk Demol said. "Today you could see where he is now, he could stay with the overall leader, and was pulling in the last climb. With a good time trial tomorrow maybe it is possible for him to move into the top five.”

Evgeni Petrov (Tinkoff-Saxo), part of the early large escape, survived to win the stage, as the last remnants of the breakaway group, including Bob Jungels, was swept up by Kennaugh, Dayer Quintana (Movistar) and Zoidl in the final four kilometers of the finish summit (16.5 km and 7.7 %).

Jungels effort today was part of a strategical team plan, which almost paid off. Although Jungels was caught on the final climb and faded to finish 22nd (+4’24”), he was the highest placed GC rider in the breakaway, which pressured other teams to chase and allowed Trek Factory Racing to sit back until the final decisive summit.

“Our goal was to be present in the breakaway with Bob, because of all the climbing," Demol said. "He was by far the strongest in the breakaway, but since he was the highest in the GC he had to do most of the work. On the last climb he could not stay with Petrov. He did a great race! He was aggressive, he climbed very well - it was nice to see.”

Today was the final mountain stage of the race and it rearranged the top postions in the overall behind the yellow jersey of Kennaugh. Javier Moreno (Movistar) moved into second and Oliver Zaugg (Tinkoff-Saxo) to third, dropping Daminao Caruso (Cannondale) out of the top three to fourth.

The cohsive team effort by Trek Factory Racing launched Zoidl into the top 10, and he now sits ninth overall (+3’18”). Tomorrow he can further amends after a disappointing start in his home country race with a great ride in the penultimate day’s 24-kilometer time trial.

After all the uphills endured in this tour, especially in the past two days, the riders are faced with a pancake flat race against the clock tomorrow, suiting the specialists. Trek Factory Racing will hope either Bob Jungels, if he can recover from today’s gargantuan effort, Kristof Vandewalle or Jesse Sergent can tag the team with it’s second stage win of the eight day race.

“Tomorrow is a dead flat time trial and we have to be realistic: Jesse [Sergent] did a huge effort yesterday, and also Bob today," Demol said. "But we still have Kristof [Vandewalle], and even Stijn [Devolder] if he has a good day can go very well tomorrow. It is not techincal - only four of five corners and two long straightways. It is really for the specialists, and we can say we have riders that can do very well in that.”