Weekend Roundup: Muhlberger and Savoie

A week of vacation is calling next week so I'm making this an abridged version.

Gregor Mühlberger

...is pretty amazing. In the last month, he won 5 races including the overall of two stage races in the Zavod Miru U23 and now, the Oberösterreichrundfahrt. After going 2nd in the opening 4 kilometer uphill road stage, Mühlberger dropped bombs on Sunday on the stage to Steyr and went on a huge solo run to win the final stage by 1'48" on 2nd place Victor de la Parte. A long, crazy solo breakaway seems to be Mühlberger's specialty.

Just don't go to Sky, Gregor, please.

Tour des Pays de Savoie

My heart just wasn't in this race this year simply because of the lack of a strong U23 field. Yes, there was some good U23s there but when you got older Spanish climbers like David Belda that weighs 53 kilos and climbs like no one's business.

Sam Oomen (Rabobank) was a star and showed that he is a top 10 favorite for Giro della Valle d'Aosta and Tour de l'Avenir. Oomen won stage 2 of the race in a nice breakaway and followed it up with the stage 4 win in the TT to take the yellow jersey into the final stage. It was short lived because the final stage on Sunday saw the miniature Belda take massive time on Oomen. Belda easily took the overall win while Oomen ceded a minute and a half to the Spaniard.

Oomen finished 2nd overall while Jeremy Maison (CC Etupes), who was great in the Ronde de l'Isard, finished 4th overall after a steady race with four straight top 10 stage finishes. Nico Denz (Chambery CF) started the race well but petered out on the final stage to finish up 7th overall. 

Leo Vincent (CC Etupes) did another fantastic final stage performance to take the stage win after taking the final stage in the Ronde de l'Isard. The 19-year old is carving out a slot in the teams for Valle d'Aosta and l'Avenir.

Until next time...

P.S. US U23 Nationals are early this week with the RR on Wednesday, the TT on Friday and the criterium on Sunday. My picks are Alexey Vermeulen for the RR,  Greg Daniel for the TT and Ben Wolfe for the crit.