”That was a stage for real men”, said Werner Salmen, Directeur Sportif of Team Vorarlberg about the fourth of seven stages of the Tour of Austria, which marked half time of the UCI 2.HC stage race and also was the queen stage.

Until that point Team Vorarlberg, riding STEVENS Xenon road bikes, had worked very well together. Especially on stage three they placed themselves well in the peloton despite many break-away attempts to get teammate Patrick Schelling into a good position, so he finished 8th that day and progressed to rank 5 overall before the queen stage from Rottenmann up to the 2572m (8438ft) Edelweißspitze, part of the Glockner Group, Austria’s highest mountain range. The stage was 182km (113mls) long and featured 3,957m (12,982ft) of climbing.

This stage, of course, was expected to pre-decide the overall classification. Considering the strength of the field it was obvious that it would be hard to repeat the previous year’s success when Victor de La Parte took the overall win for Team Vorarlberg. It was the team’s clear objective, though, to protect team leader Schelling until the beginning of the climb.

Unfortunately he was involved in a crash. Despite rashes on arm and shoulder he was able to continue, and after a wild chase with lots of strong support from his team he was able to catch up. In the ascent to the ”pinnacle of the tour” the showdown took place. Well lead-out by his team mates Schelling attacked. While many riders fell back, Patrick Schelling advanced with determination to place four in the stage.

For this effort he was rewarded with rank 3 in the GC. ”This crazy day was just a dream come true”, was the team’s comment after the stage had finished. Now this is a very good situation for the remaining three stages of the tour. The chances are good.

Stage 5 Update
On the stage 5 from Millstatt to Dobratsch with 147km (91mls) and 2,286m (7500ft) of vertical gain Schelling defended his 3rd place in the GC of the 68th edition of the Tour of Austria. In the half of the race the peloton had allowed a group to break-away. Team Vorarlberg had decided not to be part of that group but instead to focus on getting Schelling securely to the bottom of the Dobratsch climb. This ascent up to the third summit finish of the Tour is 17km (10.6mls) long and not an easy one to ride. Also, the team was forced to get Schelling back into the peloton after having suffered a flat. While the escapees fought for the stage win, in the main peloton the fight for the overall win began.

At the front it was Simone Sterbini of Team CSF Bardiani from Italy to get rid of his competitors and to win the stage in front of Spaniard David Belda Garcia and Austrian Markus Eibegger. Further behind in the peloton Patrick Schelling was able to fend off all direct rivals. He eventually finished the stage as 9th in the same time as overall leader Jan Hirt and fourth-ranked Delio Fernandez.