Pernsteiner and Morath win Alpentour 2025

There are these moments that mercilessly confront you with your own age. Your own children, for example, recovery times, or the state you're in after drinking a beer.
Especially unforgiving: the calendar. The last time I attempted the Alpentour was in 2012 - bam, suddenly it’s 2025.

Schladming had already shown itself from its best side before the first stage: accommodation in the finish area, family-friendly distances, and a bakery that's open on holidays.
Punctually at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 19th, the starting gun was fired for the 26th edition of the Styrian stage race - as a hobby rider, naturally far at the back, but the elevation gain will sort that out.
The route: incredibly beautiful. The climbs: tough but welcoming, especially the last meters of elevation on the Hauser Kaibling. The descents: lots of high speed on gravel roads, ending with a bike park rodeo to the finish. That wasn’t fun even on the race fully - chapeau to all the hardtail riders!
The pros: Do they know we still have to get on the bike three more times? I’m afraid they do.
My own performance: absolutely fine for me. 286 W NP, 02:45 h, 7th place among amateurs.
We are already looking forward to stage #2, the Dachstein is calling! But much more importantly: the ice cream for the support family - they’ve absolutely earned it.

On the "bridge day," the queen stage was on the program, featuring the Türlwandhütte and a challenging 2,700 meters of elevation gain over 70 kilometers. Just as the favorites pulled away on the first climb, the field also broke apart further back among us hobby riders.
The long ascent up into the Dachstein massif was not only a challenge for us riders. The support teams also had to hurry to even find a parking spot.
Anyone who – including me – secretly mocked the forest road highways the day before was proven wrong on the second stage: trails in abundance, steep sections, technical root trails – everything a biker's heart desires. I would gladly ride them all again – though preferably without being completely out of energy.
The penultimate climb up to the Rittisberg was my nemesis – hot, long, steep. But somehow, it seemed to be the same for almost everyone; no one was laughing anymore. In the end, it was back down through the bike park to finish 7th among the amateurs and 4th in the age category. The fact that the Reiteralm awaited the next day was something my legs, at that moment, considered a bad joke.

The third stage in Schladming once again attracted a large crowd: Stage race, One day race, Kids Sprint … The main square was packed, the weather was idyllic for the third day in a row, and the atmosphere was great.
Unlike the previous stages, today started with a 600-meter climb right after the start, which my legs processed with only moderate enthusiasm.
What I personally appreciate: After three days of hard work, you get to know each other. Yesterday, it was my rear wheel that pulled the colleague from the Amateurs 1 group up to the Türlwandhütte; today, it was the other way around.
The second-placed German duo, on the other hand, once again pushed me to the verge of a heart attack on the downhills on the third day in a row and kept up a top pace on the climbs.
This time, the ski slope up to the Reiteralm was my executioner. I had neither another gear nor a single watt of energy left to give.

Technically speaking, the third stage was somewhere between the first and the second: forest roads, but also a few flowy trails and exciting curves, and as usual, the bike park finale.
At the end of the day, I finished 8th overall and 5th in the Amateurs 2 category, which was enough for a virtual podium spot in the overall standings. But as Eddy Merckx so aptly said: "The mountain shows no mercy." In our case, it's the Schafalm, which we’ll tackle tomorrow in a mountain time trial ...

The conclusion of this year's Alpentour was, as tradition dictates, the mountain individual time trial up to the Schafalm. 1,100 meters of elevation gain over 11 kilometers – a glance at the profile and the GPX data confirmed: this was going to be tough.
Starting in reverse overall classification order with 30-second intervals ... finally, no standing in the blazing sun for 45 minutes in the starting block! I got to roll over the starting line at 11:55 and tried to pace myself reasonably well up to the mid-station.
But then, like many others, I ran out of gears and struggled over the root-covered ramps to the finish line.
With my 330 W average, I was very satisfied after three equally grueling stages. However, the fourth-placed Belgian catching me by 16 seconds was just bad luck. But what are 16 seconds after 10 hours and 44 minutes of race time?
Chapeau to Hermann Pernsteiner, who still managed to secure the overall victory. He took an incredible 12 minutes off me in the mountain time trial alone.

My very personal opinion: The Alpentour truly lived up to its reputation as a family-friendly MTB stage race. My two heroines were already asking me at the finish line when we’re coming back.