Hoffman 2nd in Upper Austria Tour

NAMIBIAN cyclist Eric Hoffman, who rides for Team Baier-corretec, finished second in the three-day Upper Austria Tour.
After a three-stage tour covering 476 km he was only narrowly beaten by Czech champion Peter Bencik.

In the first stage, he attacked a group of four riders who had earlier broken away from the peloton about 50 km into the race. After he caught up with them, the group managed to extend their lead by about two minutes before the peloton decided to chase after the group.Hoffmann then pushed the pace and it paid off as he managed to finish second to Bencik after a sprint finish that left the peloton about 25 seconds behind. The second stage forced the athletes to ride the 96km distance from Wels to Alheim in stormy conditions.Because of the weather conditions, Hoffman failed to put any pressure on the holder of the yellow jersey but managed to retain his overall second place after he finished 15th behind stage winner Timo Thomel.On the final stage of the race, the Namibian repeatedly tried to ride for the overall victory and was leading the race for a while before Bencik and his teammates caught up with him for a sprint finish, in which he came out second best.- namibiasport.com.na