First stage of the Tour of the Alps : 127.5km starting in Rattenberg and finishing uphill at the finish line in Alpbach. In the final there is also the very hard climb of Kerschbaumer Sattel (5.2km at 10.2%). Six runners animate the race : Samitier, Paret-Peintre, Hailemichael, Garosio, Martin and Vermeulen . In the group it is the INEOS Grenadiers who impose the pace and don't give too much space to the escape which is resumed at -16km. Again the English formation takes charge of making the pace on the ramps of Kerschbaumer and forces many to break away immediately; the first to attack is Haig (Bahrain – Victorious) followed by Cepeda   (EF Education-EasyPost). The two climb the hill with a 12” lead over a group made up of a dozen runners. Jack Haig goes solo on the next descent and approaches the final ascent 25” ahead of everyone else. The Australian is caught up again in the last kilometer thanks to an excellent work by G.Thomas , Carthy tries to anticipate everyone, but is caught up in the last few hundred meters by Tao Geoghegan Hart who triumphs over Alpach's finish line.

ARRIVAL ORDER:

1 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao INEOS Grenadiers 3:18:00

2       GALL Felix AG2R Citroën Team 0:02

3       CARTHY Hugh EF Education-EasyPost 0:04

4       SOSA Ivan Ramiro Movistar Team 0:06

5      VLASOV Aleksandr BORA - hansgrohe 0:07

6       SIVAKOV Pavel INEOS Grenadiers 0:08

7       LUCKY Lorenzo EOLO-Kometa 0:10

8       KÄMNA Lennard BORA - hansgrohe 0:11

9       BUITRAGO Santiago Bahrain - Victorious 0:12

10     HAIG Jack Bahrain - Victorious 0:14

Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency