Raccani, excellent top 10 in Austria

Well done, well done, well done. It was not easy, today’s stage in the Tour of Austria: far from it. Lots of climbing, real climbing to be clear with the Porscheberg climb with 15 km to go, and a consistently high pace because we learned that in cycling there is no such thing as an easy ride or a light day.

Let’s start from the end? An excellent Simone Raccani finished ninth in the stage won by Sobrero (Jayco Alula), with Narvaez (Ineos) keeping the leader’s jersey of the general classification: really good our Simone, able to stay until the end with the small group of the best and to play the final sprint. A top 10 that is not to be underestimated, not at all, given the level of the race and the opponents.

But EOLO KOMETA was the protagonist throughout the stage, with the day’s breakaway that saw nine riders on the attack with our Samuele Rivi able to reach more than 2′ of advantage before being remounted by the top group.

Simone Raccani: “Today the breakaway went away with Samuele, but in the finale the strongest teams pulled and before the last climb the group compacted. We went up at full speed and there were about ten riders left, and with this small group we played for the victory: I am happy to have managed to stay in front even on a hard climb like the last one.”

Jesus Hernandez: “Once again here in Austria the team was perfect. There was a battle at the beginning to catch the breakaway that went away after 90 km: that means all the teams wanted to be there. Rivi again today was good at getting into the breakaway, giving visibility and presence to the team: he tried to hang on but the group came back really strong. On the last climb a group of a few riders remained with Raccani, who hit a great result: a top10 is always a great result for us.”