Tour of Austria 2014, stage 6 (Dobrač, July 11)

After all, I got my dose of cheering for Jani at the Tour of Austria :)
Due to miserable weather conditions (and watching the race coverage, "miserable" is a very mild word), I decided to skip the traditional visit to the Kitzbüheler Horn. Instead, me, my mom and my flag went to the Dobrač/Dobratsch.
The city of Beljak/Villach organised a free shuttle service for the fans from the train station to the mountaintop finish area, which made the trip very easy and comfortable.
When we arrived in early afternoon, it was pretty windy and clouded, but we decided to paint the roads anyway.

First, we made a huge message for Jani at the finish line, then we descended and painted his name in a couple of places within the last 150 m before the finish. Once with a four leaf clover, once with a heart, once with a sun - you get it :)

As the riders came closer, we settled down behind the barriers and cheered on the cyclists.
First to come was stage winner Evgeny Petrov

A little later, Dayer Quintana attacked right in front of us, and quickly gained some time on race leader Peter Kennaugh (Sky) and Trek's Riccardo Zoidl

Among the first riders to pass by was also Jure Golčer

My highlight - Jani of course :)

KOM Maxim Belkov

Matej Mohorič

A mountaintop finish is not everybody's favourite

While the guys were still fighting the last meters to the finish, those who winished earlier were already on the way home. Jure Golčer and Gregor Gazvoda noticed the flag and waived as they passed, but Jani decided to stop for a few words and a hug before he speeded down the hill :) 

Post race, there was some time to explore the nature. Even though I do pass the Dobrač/Dobratsch pretty often, I never thought it was so huge and high, and never knew there is so much open terrsain suitable for hiking.

Probably that's becuase from the southern part you only get to see the massive rockface, a remain of two huge landslides (a praehistoric one with 900 million cubic meters (almost 0.9 km³), and one in 1348 with 150 million cubic meters of stone coming down).

A really long time (230 million years) ago however, the place that is now 2000 above sea level, used to be a tropical see with corals, sponges and shells.

 

Some more recent plants and animals

As we were obviously placed in camera-position, there was a glimps of the Slovene flag in the race coverage (local news and national sports news, race recap), and every full photograph of the winner crossing the finish line covers the "Jani" paintings on the road, too :) Ha!

Unluckily, the ORF videos are blocked outside of Austria, but I see the race is well covered copied on youtube.