Riccardo Zoidl got his title defence in the Tour of Austria off to a really bad start when he lost almost two minutes in the first stage. Ahead of today's queen stage, however, his Trek team remains hopeful that its captain can strike.

The 180.9-kilometer stage two at the Tour of Austria was a less lumpy affair than the previous day with only three category four climbs to tackle. Five opportunists fled the peloton early hoping they could gain enough of a lead to battle for stage glory, but despite their valiant and concerted effort all was together heading into the final 10 kilometers.

The expected mass sprint unfolded and Oscar Gatto (Cannondale) won ahead of Juan José Lobato (Movistar) and Marco Haller (Katusha). Fabio Silvestre was designated the team’s sprinter, and the young Portuguese – riding his first season at the WorldTour level - finished in 19th place.

“We wanted to give the opportunity to Silvestre today as we have no sprinter here," sports director Dirk Demol said. "It was a tricky finish and Fabio did not have the guts to be a bad boy and really fight for position. We told him yesterday to take it easy so he could save his legs for today so he could give [the sprint] a try.  I know he wanted to do better, but it was not an easy finish. It was a good chance for him to gain experience."

Trek Factory Racing’s plan for stage two was about conserving energy ahead of the first high mountains beginning today. There was no change to the overall classification with the peloton finishing in the same time, but that will certainly change in stage three with the first mountain summit, the hors catégoire Kitzbüheler Horn, ending the stage.

“We came here we good ambition since Riccardo [Zoidl] is the defending champion," Demol said. "But for some reason Riccardo blew up in the last two kilometers yesterday, which was unexpected since he was feeling good all day. He was very disappointed, but now you just go on.

"Today the goal for him was to save as much energy as possible.  Tomorrow the climb better suits him than the short one of yesterday. It’s really, really steep and eight kilometers long. If you have the legs you can take a lot of time tomorrow, and you can also lose a lot of time. If he has a good day he can do something, for sure.

"It’s a pity he lost so much time yesterday, but on the other side, the race is not over. We had a mountain finish on this climb last year so he knows the climb. We will try again tomorrow – we have to!”