Austrian Championships - CN

Podersdorf/Judendorf, Austria, June 28-July 1, 2007

National Champs summary 2006 results The program Preview

The program

Day 1 - June 28: Elite men/women time trial, 21.2 km
Day 2 - July 1: Elite men/women road race, 170/98.4 km

Preview

By Bjorn Haake

The Austrian championships come on the eve of country's national tour - the Tour of Austria. Despite being overshadowed by July's main event, this race has extremely challenging mountains and the nationals serve as a form indicator for rider's home tour.

Austria has a number of top-notch professions riders, making predictions for this weekend's event difficult. Defending champion Bernhard Kohl will be looking to double up with another victory, but should the race come down to a sprint, look out for René Haselbacher (Astana) and Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile).

Austrian-based Team Volksbank is of course sending its whole squad, freshly motivated after Gerrit Glomser's eighth overall at the Tour de Suisse. Glomser rode to a magical second place in Stage 6 up to Crans Montana.

The race is being held at the same location as the International Raiffeisen Grand Prix in Judendorf. The course has been changed slightly from its usual route, to make it a very challenging 24.7 kilometre loop, which Elite riders must master seven times for a total distance of 172 km.

The event was last held here in 2003, when Georg Totschnig won the title. He has since retired and will put his hopes on brother Harald, who rides for the strong Elk Haus Simplon team.