Jhonatan Narvaez doubles down on stage 3

Jhonatan Narvaez (INEOS Grenadiers), already winner on Monday, won the third stage of the Tour of Austria (2.1) on Tuesday, after 148.5 km between Sillian and St. Johann Alpendorf (148.5 km). The Ecuadorian extends the lead in the overall standings.

Austrian Lukas Pöstlberger (Jayco AlUla) and Germany’s Jonas Rapp (Hrinkow Advarics), the last two survivors of today’s breakaway, were caught 15km from the end of this stage that featured Hocthor’s long climb (15km in 8.2%) at the halfway point.

Narvaez, the Ethiopian and Lay Hagos Berhe (Jaiko Ela) attacked 800 meters from the finish and battled for victory. Narvaez, who came back to win after three years on Monday, now has 6 professional victories. Colombian Jesús David Pena (Jaico Ela) finished third with a time of 5 seconds.

Overall, Narvaez is now 28 seconds ahead of Pena. New Zealander George Bennett (UAE Emirates Team) came third with a time of 32 seconds.

On Wednesday, the fourth and penultimate stage will take the riders from St. Johann-Alpendorf to Steyr. Three climbs are listed over the 194km of the race, including Porscheberg (1.4km in 11%) 13km from the finish.

The Tour of Austria returns after four years. The last two editions were won by Ben Hermann in 2018 and 2019, then the race was canceled between 2020 and 2022 due to COVID-19 and then due to financial and logistical reasons.