CYCLING – TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Slovenian rider Jakob Omrzel returns to racing at the Tour of the Alps today following his appearance at GP Indurain, leading a young Bahrain Victorious line-up into the five-stage race, starting today and continuing until Friday and travelling across Tyrol, South Tyrol, and Trentino.
Held in the heart of the Alps, the race consistently delivers demanding mountain terrain despite its changing route each year.
Supporting Omrzel is a young squad of Roman Ermakov, Max van der Meulen, Oliver Stockwell, Kasper Borremans, and Balint Feldhoffer.
Borremans and Feldhoffer step up from Bahrain Victorious Development Team, while Rainer Kepplinger rounds off the squad as the oldest member of the line-up.
The opening stage of 144.3 kilometres starts and finishes in Innsbruck and features two key climbs of 6.2km at 3.7 per cent and four km at seven per cent.
Stage two, 147.5km from Telfs to Martell, introduces longer ascents, including Pillerhohe of 9.2km at six per cent and the gradual climb of Passo Resia of 15.8km at 3.4 per cent.
Stage three covering 175.1km from Latsch to Arco on the shores of Lake Garda tackles Passo Castrin of 22.2km at 5.7 per cent, the highest point of the race at 1,586 metres, before the climb to Andalo of 14.4km at 5.4 per cent.
Stage four is the queen stage, covering 167.8km from Arco to Trento with 3,600m of elevation gain. It features the demanding Passo Bordala, covering 14.8km at 6.9 per cent, and another first-category climb of 12.9km at 6.8 per cent.
The final stage of 128.6km from Trento to Bolzano remains decisive, with late climbs of 4.4km at 6.6 per cent and 9.2km at 6.2 per cent, before a fast descent to the finish.
“We have a young team at this race, and Jakob is our leader,” said Bahrain Victorious sports director Franco Pellizotti.
“All the riders will have 100 per cent commitment to help Jakob. I believe that we will achieve the best result with Jakob.
“Our goal is to be in the top eight in the general classification, but I believe he can even be closer to the top five. We have Roman, Rainer, and Oliver arriving from the Tour of Basque. They are a little bit tired, but I think this week they recovered a little bit and are for sure ready to support Jakob.
“Then we have two guys from the development team, Balint and Kasper. I expect a lot of commitment from them.
“And then we have Max, who is coming back from the injury which he got in Australia. This will be the first race for him, he is still not 100 per cent, but for sure he will start the new season very well.
“I believe that all six riders will give maximum support to Jakob, and from Jakob, I expect a good race.
“There are two strong teams there, Red Bull with Pellizzari, who was also a leader at the Giro, and for sure he will win this race and also Tudor with Storer, the winner of last year. Jakob needs to follow these guys, and I believe he will get a good place in the general classification.”
Omrzel added: “I’m very excited to be at the start of the Tour of the Alps. Since the beginning of the season, I haven’t been very lucky with my preparations, but I’ve managed to put in some quality hours on the bike, and I’m starting to feel like myself again.
“A race like this gives me a lot of motivation, and at the same time, I feel really happy and grateful to compete in races like this with our team.”
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