Michael Storer (Tudor) produced one other gorgeous efficiency to say total victory on the Tour of the Alps on stage 5, launching an assault out of the GC group 34km from the end and dropping in a single day chief Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) to wrest again the inexperienced jersey he ceded someday prior.
Arensman, who began the day with an 11-second lead on Storer, tried to comply with the Australian on the penultimate climb, however after a full fuel lead-out by Tudor and an enormous effort by Florian Stork, he was rapidly a minute behind when Storer launched his transfer.
Storer had the added assist of Lukas Eriksson to tempo him to the foot of the ultimate climb, having made it into a big 15-man early breakaway, who performed a key half in extending his result in greater than a minute over Arensman on the end line to verify the GC win.
Additional up the highway, two males who had been additionally a part of the early transfer, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Paul Seixas and Nicolas Prodhomme, proved to be the strongest of the 15 escapees and attacked away on the ultimate ascent to Stronach with a 1:30 lead over the charging Storer.
The French pair rode into the Lienz end in tandem, with a primary professional win on provide for each of them. Nevertheless, it was the loyal 28-year-old domestique Prodhomme who crossed the road first and took that maiden victory in a fantastic 1-2 with the 18-year-old tremendous expertise Seixas.
Storer crossed the end line 1:20 behind the French duo after dominating the rest of the GC subject, with Arensman’s dogged defence not sufficient to deliver him the victory. He completed second total, applauding and taking his hat off to Storer on the end.
“[I’m] tremendous, tremendous proud of my week. I simply want it was slightly bit simpler of a race. I actually needed to assault each single day,” stated Storer, describing a hard-fought week of GC racing.
Storer named every of his teammates individually as he celebrated the win, with the Giro d’Italia set, after all, as his and the staff’s subsequent large purpose.
“The fellows had been unbelievable right now. We had been a well-oiled machine, we did not put one foot unsuitable, and I’ve to thank each single member of the staff,” stated the Australian.
“I am positively in fine condition and hopefully I can proceed on this approach to the Giro.”
The way it unfolded
The ultimate stage of the 2025 Tour of the Alps kicked off with racing nonetheless properly within the steadiness, and 112.2km of motion beginning and ending in Lienz nonetheless to take care of. After a brutal fourth stage, Arensman solely had a slim 11-second lead over Storer to defend throughout the two,400m.
As soon as once more, there have been a number of assaults proper from the flag dropping, regardless of solely 79 of the 100 starters on day one remaining after 4 days of robust racing in South Tyrol.
Forward of the primary categorised climb, Bannberg (4.8km at 9.2%), a 15-rider group acquired away from the entrance of the peloton: Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek), Fran Miholjević, Finlay Pickering (Bahrain – Victorious), Matteo Vanhuffel (Improvement Staff Picnic PostNL), Ben Zwiehoff, Emil Herzog (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla), Paul Seixas, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), Lucas Eriksson (Tudor), Vicente Rojas, Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Mattia Bais (Polti VisitMalta) and Daniel Geismayr (Vorarlberg).
With Seixas’ 9:49 deficit to Arensman putting him the closest on GC, there was no risk to Ineos or Tudor, permitting the massive group to construct up greater than a three-minute lead over the primary few climbs.
After a descent down into the valley, the hole stabilised at 3:40, forward of the second ascent up the Bannberg. That is the place Tudor made their bid to say total victory, with the Swiss staff doing a full fuel lead-out on the foot of the climb with Storer within the wheel.
The lads in black and crimson made the distinction rapidly, dropping all of Arensman’s teammates and everybody else within the GC group with their preliminary push. Florian Stork did the ultimate surge, which left solely Storer and Arensman on his wheel.
Storer attacked with 34km to go after Stork had already threatened to distance the Dutchman, and he in a short time left Arensman behind on the tree-lined climb.
Motion within the break had kicked off concurrently, with the climbs taking their toll on the riders much less suited to the undulating terrain. Eight made it over the second ascent of the Bannberg in a separate group, with Storer 2:55 down and Arensman an additional 35 seconds behind.
A kind of who dropped out of the break, nevertheless, was by design and never legs. Tudor had Eriksson in entrance, who’d gone away within the massive 15-rider break, and he was rapidly in entrance of Storer and defending him from the wind on the roads that preceded the ultimate Stronach (3.1 km at 12.3%) climb.
Arensman, contrastingly, was on their lonesome and dropping time. With 15km to go on stage 5, his deficit to Storer had grown to greater than a minute. Eriksson had executed his job completely, leaving Storer simply 1:50 to try to snatch the stage win from the breakaway.
Seixas appeared the strongest out of the break and made his bid for glory with 11.4km remaining. These behind struggled to comply with the junior TT world champion, apart from his teammate, Prodhomme, who, after taking a look at these behind, realised he too was stronger than the remainder.
Having bridged throughout, the 2 Decathlon riders labored properly collectively and crested the ultimate climb of this 12 months’s Tour of the Alps, having held a 1:30 lead from Storer. They’d not be denied.
They rode to the end collectively, with a choice being made for Prodhomme to take victory in the long run, figuring out that tremendous expertise Seixas is more likely to get many extra probabilities to take a primary professional victory and several other extra all through his profession.
Storer continued to push on, proper the best way by way of to the end line, ending the day in eighth, 1:44 forward of Arensman in ninth on the day. This confirmed the change on the prime of the general standings and noticed Storer take the general win in Austria, the third GC title of his profession thus far.
Outcomes
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