Welay Hagos Berhe fought to the finish line and missed out on victory by the finest of margins on the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Austria, as Team Jayco AlUla concluded an eventful week at the race.

The Ethiopian talent battled Jhonatan Narvaez to the very end for the win – again, after doing so on stage three – and was just beaten on the finish line.
Another of the team’s young talents, Jesús David Peña, came across the line in fourth to secure the final spot on the definitive general classification podium, with Matteo Sobrero making it three Team Jayco AlUla riders inside the top five on the last stage as the team rode aggressively once again.
On the final GC, Sobrero took fourth and Hagos sixth, while Peña also secured the youth classification, with Hagos and Felix Engelhardt making it a Team Jayco AlUla clean sweep in that category.
Lucas Hamilton had earlier set the tone by getting into the early breakaway, and the Australian was part of a group that got caught on the penultimate climb. From there, it was all out with some high octane racing, which saw Hagos, Peña and Sobrero all giving it their all to sign off the race in winning style for the team.
The trio were active on the final ascent of the Sonntagberg, and in the end it wasn’t to be, but finishing atop of the teams classification showed just how well the young Team Jayco AlUla squad had worked together all week.
Pieter Weening (Sport Director):
“Hagos put in a great ride. We had to use him for pulling earlier on at the foot of the climb because he wasn’t so high on GC before today, but then he still felt really strong later on.
It’s been a very good week overall, and it’s been great for our young guys to really race and not have to focus on just doing one specific job. They really learned a lot here, which means it’s been a productive week.
All the boys committed fully this week, and we tried everything we could. We came up against one guy, Narvaez, who was just too strong in the end, but that happens in races sometimes and we can be really satisfied with a stage win, a couple of second places, a good GC result for David and three guys in the top six overall.”
Tour of Austria – Stage 4 Result:
  1. Jhonatan Narvaez 3:59:57
  2. Welay Hagos Berhe (Team Jayco AlUla) s/t
  3. Jason Osborne +0:01
Tour of Austria – Final General Classification after Stage 5:
  1. Jhonatan Narvaez 18:54:50
  2. Jason Osborne +0:42
  3. Jesús David Peña (Team Jayco AlUla) +0:45
  4. Matteo Sobrero (Team Jayco AlUla) +1:00
  5. Welay Hagos Berhe (Team Jayco AlUla) +1:12

 

Article: https://www.greenedgecycling.com/2023/07/06/team-jayco-alula-wrap-up-a-successful-tour-of-austria-as-hagos-finishes-second-and-pena-takes-third-on-gc/