Georg Totschnig (born 25 May 1971) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n former

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

who raced professionally between 1993 and 2006. He won the

Austrian National Road Race Championships The Austrian National Road Race Championship is a cycling race where the Austrian cyclists decide who will become the champion for the year to come. The winners of each event are awarded a symbolic cycling jersey which is red and white, just lik ...

in 1997 and 2003. He also rode at three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Career

In 1989, Totschnig became the Junior Austrian National Time Trial Champion. He turned professional with the Italian Lampre - Polti team in 1993, remaining with the team in 1994 when Polti became the main sponsor for the first time. He finished 5th in the 1994 edition of the

Tour DuPont The Tour DuPont was a cycling stage race in the United States held annually between 1989 and 1996, initially called the Tour de Trump in the first two years. It was intended to become a North American cycling event similar in format and prestige ...

and a few weeks later entered his first

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

, which was the 1994 Giro where he finished 13th overall helped by a top 10 on the final ITT. The following year he rode the Giro again where he finished in the top 10 on five stages ending up in 9th overall. He finished 37th in his first Tour entry and was 4th in the Young Rider Classification. The following year he abandoned the Giro prior to the final ITT and missed the Tour but had a very strong performance in the 1996 Vuelta a España coming in 6th overall. In 1997 he rode the Tour for a second time, in support of

Bjarne Riis Bjarne Lykkegård Riis (; born 3 April 1964), nicknamed ''The Eagle from Herning'' ( da, Ørnen fra Herning), is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France. For many years he was the owner and lat ...

and eventual Tour winner

Jan Ullrich Jan Ullrich (; born 2 December 1973) is a German former professional road bicycle racer. Ullrich won gold and silver medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He won the 1999 Vuelta a España and the HEW Cyclassics in front of a home crow ...

. Totschnig finished 34th overall, good enough for fourth place on the very strong Team Telekom which also included

Green jersey In road bicycle racing (e.g. Grand Tour stage races) the green jersey is a distinctive racing jersey worn by the most consistent highest finisher in the competition. While the overall race leader in the Tour de France will wear the yellow jer ...

winner

Erik Zabel Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...

. He rode well in the scandalous 1998 Tour de France, once again in 4th place on a very strong team as Ullrich fell just short of repeating with

Marco Pantani Marco Pantani (; 13 January 1970 – 14 February 2004) was an Italian road racing cyclist, widely regarded as the greatest climbing specialist in the history of the sport by measures of his legacy, credits from other riders, and records. He rec ...

finding a way to drop him in the mountains. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

he cracked the top 20 in the Tour for the first time but the following year he didn't ride in any Grand Tours. He joined his final team,

Gerolsteiner Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG (Gerolsteiner) is a leading German mineral water firm with its seat in Gerolstein in the Eifel mountains. The firm is well known for its Gerolsteiner Sprudel brand, a bottled, naturally carbonated mineral wat ...

, in 2001 and while he missed all the Grand Tours that year, he had top 10's in both the Deutschland Tour as well as the Tour of Switzerland. The following year he rode in the Giro once again and finished 7th overall. He followed this up with the Tour of Switzerland where he finished 5th. During the 2003 Giro d'Italia he finished 5th overall and then rode a very strong

Tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

coming in 12th overall. In 2004 he finished 4th at the Tour of Switzerland and then entered the Tour as the team leader, even though Gerolsteiner was nowhere near as strong as the T-Mobile, CSC, Rabobank, the Spanish teams or the US Postal team of

Lance Armstrong Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 Tour de ...

. Despite this Totschnig finished in 7th place, ahead of very strong riders including

Richard Virenque Richard VirenqueRichard Virenque's name is pronounced Ree-shah Vee-rahnk. Virenque considers himself a man of the South but pronounces his name in standard French. Confusion is caused by the southern habit of pronouncing "en" as "ang" or "eng", ...

Vladimir Karpets Vladimir Alexandrovich Karpets (russian: Владимир Александрович Карпец) (born 20 September 1980 in Leningrad) is a Russian road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI ProTeam . Karpets is most notable for winning the whi ...

, Oscar Pereiro,

Carlos Sastre Carlos Sastre Candil (; born 22 April 1975) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a España and in the Tour de France. Sastre establi ...

and Michael Rasmussen. In stage 14 of the

2005 Tour de France The 2005 Tour de France was the 92nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 2–24 July, with 21 stages covering a distance . It has no overall winner—although American cyclist Lance Armstrong origin ...

, he got into a breakaway which ultimately led to the only Grand Tour stage victory of his career. Having split open the breakaway group he then dropped breakaway companions

Stefano Garzelli Stefano Garzelli (born 16 July 1973) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional between 1997 and 2013. The high point of his career was his overall win in the 2000 Giro d'Italia, after a close three-wa ...

and

Walter Bénéteau Walter Bénéteau (28 July 1972 – 10 December 2022) was a French professional cyclist. He raced in every Tour de France from 2000 until 2006. Career Stage 1 of the 2006 Tour de France started with a seven-man break-away with Bénéteau being ...

and was the only rider able to hold off the rapidly closing GC Contenders on the penultimate climb to Ax 3 Domaines. Armstrong, Ullrich,

Ivan Basso Ivan Basso (born 26 November 1977) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in ...

and

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...

were all in pursuit and also had Totschnig's teammate

Levi Leipheimer Levi Leipheimer (born October 24, 1973) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He was twice US national champion, winning the time trial title in 1999 and the road race in 2007, and is an Olympic medalist. Leipheimer was born a ...

with them. Armstrong and Basso finished 2nd and 3rd behind him as he was able to claim the win by 56 seconds. He was the first Austrian to win a stage in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

since

Max Bulla Max Bulla (September 26, 1905 – March 1, 1990) was an Austrian professional road bicycle racer. In the 1931 Tour de France, Bulla won three stages and wore the yellow jersey for one day. He eventually finished the Tour in 15th place overall an ...

in 1931. He was voted Austrian Sportsman of the year in 2005. Totschnig was surprised to win the accolade, as he had not expected to win more votes than the skier

Benjamin Raich Benjamin Raich (born 28 February 1978 in Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in ...

. Totschnig's younger brother,

Harald Totschnig Harald Totschnig (born 6 September 1974) is an Austrian former cyclist. His brother Georg Totschnig was also a professional cyclist. Major results ;2003 : 9th Overall Tour de Slovénie ;2006 : 3rd Road race, National Road Championships ;2009 : 5 ...

is also a professional cyclist.

Major results

;1989 Austrian National Time Trial Champion - Junior ;1993 ''First year as a professional.'' ;1994 : - ;1995 : 9th overall – Giro d'Italia ;1996 : Austrian National Time Trial Champion : 6th overall –

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...

;1997 : Austrian National Road Race Champion : Austrian National Time Trial Champion ;1998 : 2nd overall –

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of th ...

;1999 : 2nd overall –

Tour of Austria The Tour of Austria (german: Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) is a stage cycling race held in Austria. From 1949 to 1995 it was a race for amateur cyclists, turning into a professional event in 1996. In 2005 and 2006 it was organised as a 2 ...

;2000 : Overall and stage win – Tour of Austria ;2001 : Austrian National Time Trial Champion : 6th overall – Tour de Suisse ;2002 : Austrian National Time Trial Champion : 5th overall – Tour de Suisse : 7th overall – Giro d'Italia ;2003 : Austrian National Road Race Champion : 5th overall – Giro d'Italia : 12th overall –

;2004 : Austrian National Time Trial Champion : Stage win –

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

: 7th overall –

: Member, Austrian National Team, Athens Summer Olympics ;2005 : Stage 14 win –

: 3rd overall –

Deutschland Tour The Deutschland Tour (English: ''Tour of Germany'' and sometimes ''Deutschland-Rundfahrt'' in German) is the most important multi-stage road bicycle race in Germany. Initially the race was held in May/June, but from 2005 until 2008 it was moved to ...

;2006 ''Retired at end of the

2006 UCI ProTour The 2006 UCI ProTour was the second year of the UCI ProTour system, in which the ProTour teams are guaranteed, and obliged to, participate in the series of ProTour races. The prelude to the 2006 ProTour was dominated by a dispute between the ma ...

season.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Totschnig, Georg 1971 births Living people Austrian male cyclists Austrian Tour de France stage winners Cyclists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Austria People from Schwaz District Tour de Suisse stage winners Sportspeople from Tyrol (state)