16 riders are going to compete today for the title of the Austrian Champion on a hard 47 km long mountain course. The clear favourite is Stefan Denifl, as Georg Preidler should be his biggest rival.
The action starts with some attacks from amateur riders, but we move quickly to 30 km to go, when some of the biggest names just ride away from the main field.
These riders are: Paulus, Preidler, Denifl, Wöhrer and Zoidl.
After few kms Pernsteiner, Fankhauser, Brändle, Kohl, Weiss, Grossschartner and Postlberger are able to bridge the gap to them and it looks quite clear that today's winner will be one of those 12 riders.
With 17 km left, Denifl takes the pace of the front group higher and immediately drops Postlberger, Weiss, Grossschartner, Pernsteiner and Fankhauser.
And with 10 km to the finish line Denifl attacks! Zoidl is in a deep trouble, but it looks like no riders are actually able to follow him!
With 7.5 km to go Denifl leads by 20 seconds over Preidler who has just attacked from the chasing group. Paulus, Brändle and Wöhrer are not able to push their pace any higher, while we can see Kohl clearly struggling in the end of the group.
This is some incredible ride from Preidler as he is able to regain contact with Denifl with 5 km to the finish as all other riders are down the road by more than 2 minutes at this point!
But as we are heading towards the final 2 kms of the race, Denifl finally cracks Preidler as it was expected!
The new Austrian champion is Stefan Denifl!
Totally empty Georg Preidler takes a well deserved silver medal.
And it is David Wöhrer who wins a bronze medal today in the final sprint over Daniel Paulus, Bernhard Kohl and Mathhias Brändle.
Just 10 riders were able to finish the race in the time limit.
The bigest favourite of the time trial is Matthias Brändle, but Andreas Hofer, Riccardo Zoidl or Lukas Postlberger should surely be able to challenge him on their good day. And who knows, maybe even the road champion Stefan Denifl could be able to surprise here, who knows...
Stefan Denifl posts the first real benchmark of the day: 71'18". The rumours from the track are that this time is not really a good one in comparison to others favourites coming in later.
And it is Riccardo Zoidl who immediately completely smashes the leading time: 69'44" [-1'33"]!
Lukas Postlberger posts a good time, but not a better one than current leader - 70'07" [+23"].
However as expected Andreas Hofer improves the fastest time - 69'18" [-25"].
Only the bigest favourite remaining...
And Matthias Brändle delivers exactly what was expected from him! 68'47" [-31"] and he is the 2017 Austrian Time Trial Champion!
