Alpentour Trophy 2026, the four-day stage race, began on Thursday in the Schladming-Dachstein region with a 60-kilometer climb to Hauser Kaibling, the highest point of this year’s edition at 1,840 meters. The stage wins on the opening stage, which featured 2,100 meters of elevation gain, went to Germany’s Jakob Hartmann and Tanja Priller in the elite category.
Hartmann secured the first German stage victory in the men’s category in five years. “I actually like the heat. It could be even hotter for me,” he said, referring to the summery temperatures that prevailed in Schladming on Thursday. “It went really well, and we worked well together during the race. In the end, it came down to a direct battle, man against man,” continued the German, who won the first day ahead of Italy’s Lorenzo Samparisi and the Netherlands’ Tim Smeenge, both of whom had already won stages in the race.
Early in the race, on the first climb, an eight-man group formed around the eventual winner. From this group, he broke away with Samparisi and Smeenge, while the remaining riders formed the chase. Hartmann finished 1 minute and 26 seconds ahead of Samparisi, with Smeenge crossing the line 3 minutes and 3 seconds behind the winner. The best Austrian was Jakob Reiter in fourth place. The Upper Austrian’s performance surprised even his own expectations.
“I hadn’t expected to be riding so far up front. That was a really good start, and that’s exactly what I want to build on in the coming days,” he explained. Last year’s winner, Hermann Pernsteiner, had bad luck, losing several minutes due to a broken fork. Although he was able to continue the race, he finished 12th for the day, already 13 minutes and 35 seconds behind the winner.
“Unfortunately, the fork came loose, and I had to stop and tighten it. That cost me a lot of time. Otherwise, it was perfect for riding and, as always, fun at the Alpentour. Nevertheless, my ambitions in the overall standings are now gone, and I will concentrate on stage wins,” said Pernsteiner. In the women’s race, a duo dominated the first half: the eventual winner, Tanja Priller, who finished fourth overall in last year’s Alpentour Trophy, and Nina Mosser, who lives in Graz. Mosser had to let her rival go on the climb to Hauser Kaibling.
“I felt really good and tried to stay with Tanja for as long as possible, but she was having such a strong day. In the end, I tried to make up some ground on the downhill,” explained Mosser, who finished 3:59 minutes behind Priller. “It went really well,” Priller summarized with satisfaction, though she also struggled with the high temperatures at the end: “It was especially hot on the final climb.” Tyrolean Tina Kindlhofer finished third for the day.
On Friday, the second stage covers 63.5 kilometers and begins with a long climb to the foot of the Dachstein cable car, before the route leads via Pichl and the Untertal valley back to Schladming.