Race report RCL St. Marein Feistritz

The second race of the Road Cycling League Austria took place in St. Marein-Feistritz in Styria. Seven riders competed for our team: Amalie Cooper, Franziska Ehrenreich, Ramona Grießer, Tabea Huys, Nela Kankovska, Jana Meus, and Jennifer Pesendorfer.

The 74 race kilometers were held on a 7.4 km circuit, which had to be completed ten times. From the very beginning, the Tirol Women Cycling Team put in a strong performance, controlling the race from the front and launching numerous attacks. The goal was to tire out the strongest sprinters and, ideally, form a breakaway group.

After the sixth lap, five riders managed to break away from the peloton following an intermediate sprint, with Tirol Women Cycling strongly represented in the lead group by Tabea and Amalie. The gap quickly increased, so the victory was ultimately decided within this group.

Once again, Tabea secured a podium place (2nd). This time, however, she narrowly missed out on the win but was also awarded the prize for the most active rider. Amalie finished fifth, and right behind her was Nela, who clearly won the sprint of the main field.

All of our riders delivered an excellent team performance in this race and worked together perfectly. This was rewarded not only with three top-10 finishes in the overall standings, but also with a complete podium sweep in the U23 classification (1st Tabea, 2nd Amalie, 3rd Nela).

In addition, we were able to extend our lead in the team classification of the Road Cycling League Austria, and Tabea continues to lead both the elite classification and the U23 classification.

On the same day, the gravel race around Lake Wörthersee took place. Belinda Holzer competed in the first gravel race for the Tirol Women Cycling Team. She started in the elite category over 150 km at the Beat Gralf. In this category, she finished in 14th place with a time of 4:51:30.

The team’s next races are the Hungerburg Race on April 18 and the Cherry Blossom Race on April 26, where points for the Road Cycling League Austria will again be at stake.

The race results can be found here (computerauswertung.at): https://www.computerauswertung.at/veranstaltung.php?V_ID=260412&lang=de