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Emil Herzog brings the Tour of the Alps to a conciliatory conclusion
Emil Herzog finished the final stage of the Tour of the Alps in third place. The young German had never finished an elite race better.
He didn't make a big deal of it, but at the end of the Tour of the Alps (2.Pro) Emil Herzog achieved the best result of his young professional career. The 20-year-old finished the 5th stage of the race through the Alps in third place. On paper, this is better than his fifth and seventh places at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali (2.1) this season or seventh place at Milan-Turin (1.Pro) last year.
Emil Herzog crosses finish line of the 5th stage of the Tour of the Alps.
© Getty Sport
"I would have hoped for a bit more," said Emil soberly. "But it's all right. All in all, I'm satisfied." The man from Simmerberg, who has moved his centre of life to Austria near Lake Constance, was only beaten by Nicolas Prodhomme and Paul Seixas. Like Emil, the duo from Decathlon AG2R were part of the 15-man breakaway group, which also included Ben Zwiehoff. "It was a big struggle to even get into the group," Emil described the situation at the start of the race. "The fact that two of us made it was important, because the pace on the climbs was very high the whole time."
From the breakaway to the podium
The breakaway had formed around 20 kilometres after the start of the final stage around the Austrian town of Lienz, which was only 112 kilometres long, and then pulled out a lead that could no longer be caught. On the last climb of the day ten kilometres before the finish, which had an average gradient of twelve per cent over a length of 3000 metres, the group fell apart.
Ben Zwiehoff and Emil Herzog in the breakaway group on stage 5
© Getty Sport
Prodhomme and Seixas quickly made common cause and were able to break away with two attacks. "I missed the decisive move a little," said Emil, who then followed up as a soloist. "I had hoped to catch up again on the descent, but it wasn't quite enough." In the end he was 29 seconds down.
Jai Hindley finishes Tour of the Alps in eighth place
Emil was able to make up some ground in the overall standings. However, after many helpers on the previous days, he only achieved a top 30 result. However, even arriving at the finish of the difficult tour was no walk in the park, with almost a quarter of the entire field failing to reach the finish.
Above all, the inhospitable conditions on the completely rainy and bitterly cold fourth stage put the brakes on several riders. Lennart Jasch and Anton Palzer also had to retire exhausted. Captain Jai Hindley also had to contend with the cold and lost his good starting position in the overall standings, but was able to climb back up to eighth place on the final day.
