The final stage of the 2017 Tour of Austria will once again test the field, as riders will travel 204 kilometers from the Salzburg mountain village of St. Johann Alpendorf to the Upper Austrian city of Wels.
After the peloton departs from St. Johann Alpendorf, they will ride for approximately 10 kilometers before reaching the start of their first major climb on the stage.
The climb up to the town of St. Martin will not be the steepest of the day, possessing an average gradient of 2.2%, but will last for almost 18 kilometers before they reach the top of the climb.
The riders will descend from St. Martin, but must soon resume their climbing once again.
52 kilometers from the departure, riders will begin their climb up the Pass Gschutt, which will take the field up an average gradient of 6.1% for 2.9 kilometers.
Once they have reached the summit of Pass Gschutt, the peloton will gradually descend for the next 30 kilometers before reaching the town of Bad Ischil.
At Bad Ischil, the riders will reach the first checkpoint with intermediate sprint points up for grabs.
Just past the halfway point of the stage, 107 kilometers from the start, riders will begin a tough category 2 climb up Hochlecken. The climb up Hochlecken will last 7 kilometers at an average gradient of 6% before riders reach the summit.
After summiting Hochlecken, the final 90 kilometers of the stage into Wels is generally all downhill.
There will be two final intermediate sprint checkpoints 15 kilometers and 8 kilometers from the finish.
These intermediate sprints will not only be close to one another, but will be close to the finish, and the field must stay alert in the final 20 kilometers.
Stage 6 will likely be a battle between overall leader Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport) and second place Delio Fernandez (Delko Marseille Provence). Fernandez has been consistent throughout the Tour, and sits 37 seconds behind Denifl going into the final stage. Denifl has put himself in great positioning to capture the yellow jersey as the overall winner of the 2017 Tour of Austria, but must make sure he does not lose contact with the front pack at any point and will hope to get strong support from his Aqua Blue Sport teammates.
Miguel Lopez (Astana) was the winner of Stage 4, and currently sits in 3rd place overall, but will find it hard to capture the overall title at this year's Tour unless he is able to make up substantial ground on Denifl and Fernandez on the final stage, while holding off riders who sit just behind him in the general classification. Fernandez sits only 3 points behind Stephan Rabitsch (Felbermayr-Simplon-WELS) in the mountains classification however, and could take the lead from Rabitsch if he were able to put a big day in the mountains on the final stage.
Sep Vanmarcke (Cannondale-Drapac) will be another rider to watch on the final stage. Vanmarcke wore the yellow leaders jersey for 3 stage before Stefan Denifl claimed it. Vanmarcke currently sits in 2nd place in the point classification, and his Cannondale-Drapac teammates will likely be looking out for their teammate and pushing him to move up in the field.
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