Australian Michael Storer has ridden to the biggest triumph of his flourishing cycling career, pedalling brilliantly to the Tour of the Alps title in Austria.
The 28-year-old Perth rider, who’s in the form of his life, outclassed a high-quality field in the mountainous five-day stage-race, overturning an 11-second deficit overnight to completely eclipse the Dutch leader Thymen Arensman on Friday and take the overall crown by an emphatic one-minute 31-second margin.
Storer, giving his ambitious Swiss team Tudor Pro their biggest victory, had been locked in a final-day duel with Team Ineos leader Arensman, but soon wiped out his deficit when he went on the attack against his rival 35km from home on the penultimate climb of the 112.2km route around the Tyrolean town of Lienz.
With another superb demonstration of climbing that no-one else in the field could match, he quickly put a minute into his rival and, helped by a Swedish teammate Lucas Eriksson who’d been part of an early breakaway, Storer was able to fly home home in eighth place on the stage, 1:44 ahead of Arensman.
Up ahead, Frenchman Nicolas Prodhomme took the final-stage honours, coming home alongside his brilliant young teenage teammate Paul Seixas, but Storer was in a class of his own with a GC victory that suggests he can be a threat to win the Giro d’Italia which begins in a fortnight.
“I’m definitely in good shape and hopefully I can continue this way into the Giro,” said Storer, who’s enjoyed a couple of Grand Tour stage wins in the past at the Vuelta a Espana.
“I’m super, super happy with my week. I just wish it had been a little less complicated of a race.”
Indeed, it had been an arduous win for Storer, carved out in challenging weather in the toughest ever of the race’s 48 editions, featuring 16,000m of climbing.
First, he looked to have the race well in control when winning the second stage with a dazzling solo effort, only to have his lead evaporate on Thursday through Arensman’s bold lone breakaway.
At one point on Thursday, the Dutchman had been more than four minutes ahead of him in the virtual GC standings, forcing the Australian to plough his own courageous lone vigil just to keep in the leader’s green jersey hunt. He ended up quite exhausted.
“We had to attack every single day,” he reflected. “Today, the guys were incredible, and we didn’t put a foot wrong – I have to thank every single member of the team, they all put in 110 per cent.”
Storer is the first Australian since Cadel Evans in 2014 and Richie Porte the following year to take the Alpine title.
It was a measure of his excellence that he beat his compatriot, the 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley, by over six minutes after nearly 20 hours in the saddle. Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe rider Hindley had to settle for eighth place.
