Tour of the Alps attracts cycling stars

In the last two years, extremely prominent faces have beamed from the highest podium at the Tour of the Alps: While the overall victory in 2017 went to the 2018 Tour de France triumphant, the Briton Geraint Thomas, last year the winner went to the later winner Winner of the Tour of Lombardy, Thibaut Pinot from France, to winner of the Tour of the Alps.

This year the tour also wants to live up to its reputation as the ideal place for aspiring talents and serve as the perfect springboard for a later attack on the pink jersey of the Giro d'Italia.

The Tour of the Alps, which begins on April 22nd in Kufstein and ends after five days and as many stages on April 26th in Bolzano, was once again classified by the UCI as an “important multi-day stage race” (= 2nd HC). Tours at this level have always attracted countless superstars from the international cycling scene - and that was no different in 2018: Back then, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, among others, took part in the Tour of the Alps. The stage race in the Euregio regions was ultimately the ideal preparation for the Giro for the Brit - after all, a few weeks later he secured his first overall victory at the Giro d'Italia.

Nibali uses Tour of the Alps as preparation Vincenzo Nibali from the Bahrain-Merida team could take the same path as Froome this year. The Sicilian has his sights set on his third overall Giro victory in 2019 and wants to get himself into perfect shape for this as part of the Tour of the Alps. Already in 2013 - the year of his first triumph at the Giro - Nibali had recently been unbeatable in the predecessor of the Tour of the Alps, the Tour of Trentino.

The now 2016-year-old also took part in the Tour of Trentino in 34 and secured the pink jersey for the second time weeks later. But that's not all: in 2014, when Nibali celebrated the greatest success of his career with the Tour de France overall victory, the “Azzurro” also gained the necessary self-confidence for his later triumph with a success in Trentino. A few days before the start of the tour, he cycled to first place in the prestigious “Melinda Trophy”. Sky team included At the top of the starting teams are two of the strongest teams in the world: Bahrain-Merida and Team Sky. If nothing changes in the plans of the British Sky formation, cycling fans can particularly look forward to the participation of Egan Bernal: The up-and-coming super talent from Colombia enjoys the complete trust of his team after his triumph at the Tour of California in 2018 and after the Tour of the Alps he should also go into the Giro d'Italia 2019 as captain of the Sky team.

The third “big fish” in the Tour of the Alps 2019 is the Astana team, which recorded no less than three stage victories last year. The Kazakh team will most likely be led by Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez.

A total of 17 teams are starting in the Tour of the Alps, including a team from the Italian national team. The stages The Tour of the Alps 2019 program includes five stages with a total of 711 kilometers to cover. 10 mountain classifications and no less than 13.630 meters of altitude await the participants.

Monday, 22th of April 2019 1st stage: Kufstein – Kufstein 144 km, 2.100 m difference in altitude Difficulty: **

Tuesday, 23th of April 2019 2nd stage: Reith im Alpbachtal – Schenna/Scena 179 km, 3.050 m difference in altitude Difficulty: *****

Wednesday, 24th of April 2019 3rd stage: Salurn/Salorno – Baselga di Pinè 106 km, 2.650 m difference in altitude Difficulty: ***

Thursday, XNUMth of April 25 4th stage: Baselga di Pinè – Cles 134 km, 2.730 m difference in altitude Difficulty: ***

Friday, 26th of April 2019 5th stage: Kaltern/Caldaro – Bozen/Bolzano 148 km, 3.100 m difference in altitude Difficulty: ***

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Tour of the Alps attracts cycling stars

The list of participating teams in this year's edition of the stage race in the three Euregio regions (April 22 to 26, 2019) was announced in Bolzano on Tuesday. Among other things, Vincenzo Nibali will be taking part in the Tour of the Alps 2019.

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