Tour of Austria
The Tour of Austria is an international cycling race, held annually since 1947. The stage race is part of the UCI Europe Tour and was until 2005 in the category 2.1, and belongs from 2006 in Hors Class.
History
The long between seven and ten stages race was held in 1947 for the first time in the postwar period and it won in the 1990's considerable reputation. The Tour of Austria was used because of its challenging mountain stages for many athletes as a preparation race for the Tour de France. Since 2005, the tour is not more as by then in June, but the beginning of July and thus coincide with the Tour de France held. Since 1949, twenty Austrians were able to win the Tour.
2007 Tour of Austria was increased to eight days and 2008 stage eight stages were also down. For the 60th edition of the Tour of 2008 stars such as Tom Boonen, Davide Rebellin, Danilo di Luca, Paolo Bettini, Danilo Napolitano and Paolo Savoldelli could be committed. The 60th tour won Thomas Rohr Egger from Austria. The 61st edition of the Tour 2009 was held July 5 to July 12. In addition, four national champions contested the Tour of Austria. Besides Markus Eibegger from Austria, Martin Reimer of Germany, Martin Veltis from Slovakia and Koos Moerenhout from the Netherlands.
Classification jerseys
As with any bike tour is also available in the Tour of Austria different classification jerseys:
- The yellow leader's jersey: The yellow jersey bears the driver who leads the individual general classification by time. The individual classification by time is created by the times of all stages are added taking into account the time credits and time penalties. For all drivers who cross the finish line isolated in a group and by no more than one second, the same time is employed.
- The Red Jersey: Since 2011, the Red jersey distinguishes the leaders in the individual general classification by points. Support of the Red Jerseys is the driver with the most points. Points are awarded for each stage for the first ten riders in the order of their classification ( 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points). In addition, during the various stages of points will be awarded in the sprints ( 4, 2 and 1 points). By 2008, the jersey was white-blue. 2009 and 2010 is the color of the jersey was green.
- The red dotted mountain Jersey: The white jersey with red dots carrying the driver who leads the mountain classification by points. Carrier of the mountain dotted jersey is any driver who could win the most points at the climbs in total. The number of points depends on the difficulty of the climb. Most Points are awarded for the climbs Hors Catégorie, then. Descending by I, II, III and IV category.
- The best team on the tour gets no leader's jersey.
- The white jersey: Traditional is also the best Austrians awarded at the Tour of Austria in the field. So wears the best red-white- red athlete overall in the white jersey.
- The best U25 rider is awarded a yellow jersey number.