In the event you’ve adopted biking over the previous few years, you may nearly definitely know the identify Lukas Pöstlberger. He is a Giro d’Italia stage winner, a two-time Austrian street champion, and he wore the yellow jersey on the Critérium du Dauphiné for 4 days in 2021. Now, aged 32, he finds himself in a good spot.
With no staff, Pöstlberger is racing the Tour of the Alps this week for his nationwide squad. It is simply his second street race of the season, his first this yr at professional stage, and the stakes are excessive. A very good efficiency, he feels, will assist him get again into the professional ranks, a tier from which he fell on the finish of final yr.
“There was just a little little bit of a miscommunication with [Jayco AlUla] final yr,” he instructed Biking Weekly forward of the primary stage. After seven years at Bora-Hansgrohe, Pöstlberger joined the Australian squad in 2023, the place he stayed for only one yr, earlier than he obtained “overlooked”.
“My administration and their administration have a unique strategy of doing issues,” he stated. “I actually needed to remain, after which I obtained overlooked. I do not wish to blame anyone particular, but it surely performed an element that some Australians needed to return again to the staff and be aggressive there. There was a spot to fill once they left me out, and a few native guys had the advantage of it.”
“I attempted to get in contact with different groups, however on the finish of September, it is actually onerous to get something going. I needed to discover a totally different answer and check out myself as a privateer, possibly bridge a yr and get again to the WorldTour subsequent yr.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
On the Tour of the Alps, Pöstlberger would not have the posh of an opulent staff bus. He is travelling from stage to stage within the Austrian squad’s white minivan, and racing on a blue Lapierre bike, the fruits of a private take care of the model.
This season, although, he is gotten extra used to driving with flat handlebars. “I needed to swap to mountain bike,” he stated, a sport he hadn’t achieved since he was 11 years outdated. “It is a lot simpler to get into a tough race in mountain bike these days. It has been a little bit of an journey I’d say, but it surely’s good preparation.
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“It is a totally different strategy when it’s important to do all of the organisation and the supporting and the planning for your self, additionally to be aggressive and attain the extent the others are at. They’ve much more racing of their legs, however this possibly performs in my favour.”
At present, due to his quiet race schedule, Pöstlberger feels contemporary and able to show himself. He pressured his means into the breakaway on stage two of the Tour of the Alps, the place he stayed for over 160km, driving on residence roads into Austria, earlier than dropping again to the peloton.
“Ultimately, I could not maintain the wheel,” he stated on the end, quick for phrases underneath the Alpine solar. “I attempted however I wasn’t profitable.”
Nonetheless, what the Austrian’s transfer did present was a dogged willpower, the identical angle that helped him via the winter, and the identical one he hopes will land him a contract for 2025.
“I am already speaking to groups,” he stated, earlier than including: “There’s nothing concrete. It is a onerous enterprise and a troublesome job. I hope my expertise will assist me get in contact and keep in biking.”
With a transparent mission at hand, Pöstlberger’s again on the radar.
