“I would never have believed that I would achieve all this. This is so far beyond expectations that it will take even longer to realize it. This opens up completely new possibilities for the future,” Gal said after the Tour ended in July. Quite a few former cycling champions predict And his companions and other experts wish him a glorious future.
In addition to winning the Queen's stage, the former World Junior Champion also impressed with two more podium places, as no Austrian has managed to achieve a top-eight finish in the final classification and a top-two finish in the mountains classification on a Tour in more than 100 years. from history.
Jal stays on the ground
Gal was already one of the best players in the world, but he didn't really break out until the spring. No one expected that he would catapult himself so high on the biggest stage possible. Gall himself did not do so, which is why he commented on what was achieved with a certain degree of skepticism.
But now he knows for sure why the tour was called the “Tour of Agony.” “You think you suffer more than others, but everyone suffers the same thing. It's also ups and downs on an emotional level.
Positive balance after multiple World Cups
The next positive headlines came from Austrian cyclists at the UCI World Championships in Scotland with two gold, three silver and nine bronze medals. The highlights from a local perspective were the mountain bike gold medals from Valentina Hall (downhill) and Mona Mitrovalner (marathon cross country), the surprise bronze in the road time trial from Christina Schweinberger and the silver from Andreas Kolb in the downhill.
Hall, who recently turned 22, defended her downhill title. Just a few hours later, Kolb also raced to a silver medal in the men's downhill. For last year's European champion, this was the first precious metal at the World Championship.
A day later, the 21-year-old from Metrol provided the following highlights from an Austrian perspective. The Tyrolean won the gold medal in the cross-country race in Glentrees Forest in superior fashion. The 21-year-old then had to settle for fourth place in the Olympic cross country competition.
Schweinberger shines at the World Cup
Road cyclist Schoenberger pulled off the biggest upset of the World Cup. The 26-year-old Tyrolean sensationally won bronze in the 36.2km individual time trial. On the final day, Schweinberger almost surprised everyone with more precious metal when he finished fifth in the road race. In fifth place, it achieved the Austrian Cycling Association's (ÖRV) best result to date in a professional road race at the World Championships after Harald Mayer's fifth place in Italy in 1985.
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