Austrian festival day at the Tour de France

Patrick Konrad spread his arms in the lashing Pyrenean rain of Saint-Gaudens and clutched his head in disbelief. With his first daily victory in the Tour de France, the 29-year-old national champion from Austria achieved the greatest success of his career.

“I won a stage, I'm really speechless. This victory is for my family, my friends and for everyone who believed in me. That makes me really proud,” said Konrad. For the Bora racing team it was the second victory of the day on this tour after Nils Politt's solo. “I won a stage, I'm really speechless” Patrick Conrad After 169 kilometers from Pas de la Case to Saint-Gaudens, Konrad, who had already finished second on the day on Saturday, prevailed on Tuesday in adverse conditions ahead of Sonny Colbrelli from Italy and Michael Matthews from Australia. His almost 40 kilometer long solo through the continuous rain was followed by relief at the finish when Konrad realized his masterpiece. “It was some time to celebrate. “I’m super happy and I can now fully enjoy this moment,” said Konrad.

On the hilly and demanding section, the Col de Portet-d'Aspet had to be overcome, among other things, on the descent of which the Italian Fabio Casartelli had a fatal accident 26 years ago. Immediately before two tough Pyrenees mountain finishes, everything went well this time - despite the capricious weather. Konrad confidently kept his two strongest rivals, Colbrelli and David Gaudu from France, at a distance after an attack about 40 kilometers from the finish.

Tadej Pogacar (l.) and Richard Carapaz crossed the finish line together. © APA/afp / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT

Tadej Pogacar calmly defended the yellow jersey of the overall leader. As predicted, the 16th stage was something for the breakaways, who pushed forward from the start and attacked courageously. At some point a group came through, the UAE team led by Pogacar let the breakaways go because there was no danger for the yellow jersey.

There were further attacks within the leading group in order to avoid having to go into a sprint final with Colbrelli, who was quick at the end. Konrad's courage was reminiscent of Politt, who had also started his day's victory in Nimes with an attack from an escape group. Now it's getting serious For Pogacar and Co., as expected, it was a transfer stage in which the sole aim was to get through the rain and cold safely and safely. Things finally get serious on Wednesday: On the way to the extremely difficult final climb at the Col du Portet in Saint-Lary-Soulan, we go over two first category passes. The yellow wearer from Slovenia called the 17th stage “the most difficult” of the remaining tour.

The three pursuers Rigoberto Uran (Colombia), Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) and Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) are likely to make further attacks in order to maintain a minimal chance of overall victory. Even though four-time winner Chris Froome already said: “I would say if Tadej Pogacar stays on his bike, it's over. He showed so much maturity.”

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Austrian festival day at the Tour de France

On Tuesday, Patrick Konrad became only the third Austrian to ever win a stage of the Tour de France.

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