Tour of Austria #1: 2nd place for MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung in Austrian TTT opener

The Tour of Austria got underway today with a short 5.4km team time trial prologue today. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung put in a stunning ride to finish in 2nd place, less than 1 second behind Team Katusha.

Being the 10th team to start today, our African team went all out to post a fast time. A tremendous effort from all the boys saw us go top of the leaderboard with an average speed of just over 56km/h. There would be another 10 teams to come across the finishline after us, including the 6 World Tour teams.

Our time of 5’46” would nervously stand the test of time until the final team crossed the line, Team Katusha, who just bettered our mark by 1 second. After leading for so long it was a bitter sweet pill to swallow but nonetheless, it was a terrific result by our African team.

That was such a hard effort after not racing since Tour of California, but it felt awesome. From the start we all went full gas and not once did we lose speed. It is such a pity that we lost by less than 1 second but this builds morale for the coming days so let’s hope for some stage wins.
Johann van Zyl – Rider