From Mezzolombardo to Sterzing, today’s stage of Tour of the Alps featured over 4300m of elevation—and it didn’t disappoint. Team Picnic PostNL took charge after the early break went clear, reeling it back in with 50km to go as the race hit the first of two laps on the local circuit featuring the Obertelfes climb.
The first ascent blew the peloton apart, with a small group cresting the climb with a narrow gap, only to have several riders regain contact on the descent.
From there, the pace surged again on the final ascent, triggering attacks, with Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) launching clear with 11km to go, later soloing to victory ahead of Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) who led the chase group home for second place, while Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) rounded out the podium.
Earlier, an attack by Lukas Meiler (Vorarlberg) and Koen Bouwman (Jayco-AlUla) saw the two riders jettison the peloton, with Fran Miholjevic (Bahrain Victorious) joining the duo soon after to make it three out front.
From there, the trio opened up a sizable advantage of 4:30 over the peloton by the halfway mark of the stage, with Bouwman grabbing 10 mountain classification points atop Monte San Pietro along the way.
Shortly afterwards, Meiler dropped back into the peloton, while his former breakaway companions remained out until they were reined with 49km.
Lidl-Trek riders Juan Pedro López and Giulio Ciccone led the way over the top of the first ascent of Telves di Sopra, where they were joined by Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Bardet and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla).
However, the peloton came back together along the descent, with Geoffrey Bouchard (Decathlon AG2R) briefly riding clear with 20km remaining.
Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) led the group into the second ascent before Decathlon AG2R took over to launch Gall and Paul Seixas, with the two leaders later being joined by Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Storer during the final kilomter of the climb.
Heading down the descent, Storer opened up an advantage during the last 10km.
Despite several attacks from the chase group, Storer increased his lead to over 30 seconds heading into the final kilometers. Even the addition of Davide Piganzoli (Polti-VisitMalta), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), and Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) couldn’t reel in the Australian rider.
