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Queen mountain stage has shaken up things on 29th Tour of Slovenia, but not in exactly the way we expected. Instead of climb to Kolovrat, it was descent from it that decided on the stage winner. Jesus David Peña (Jayco AlUla) won the stage ahead of his teammate Filippo Zana, the new leader of the race. Best Slovenian was Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) in sixth.
Stage highlight was of course the KOM finish Kolovrat that riders had to climb twice and that alone was more than two thousand altitude meters! At the first go at it, the group was pretty much together, but on the next attempt if completely fell apart with Filippo Zana crossing the top first. No surprise there, he is one of the favorites for the race. Paul Double (Human Powered Health) was the last who could keep up with the Italian champion and it looked like a sure victory for him. But the climb was long and other were catching up towards the top, including 2-times Tour of Slovenia winner Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) that came on top 30 seconds after. Slovenian favorite Domen Novak couldn’t keep up. Fast descent to the Soča valley followed and this is where it happened. Zana was to fast in one of the corners and had a spectacular crash, going over the handlebar and ending up on the grass under the road. Peñapassed as Zana was climbing back to the road, was thinking of stopping but the order from the car came and he went ahead towards the stage victory. That was also not without problems as he had a malfunction of the drivetrain and couldn’t shift to high gears. But as there were only 2 km on the flat left, that wasn’t decisive today.
Jesus David Peña after the race: “I’m really, really happy to take this victory, this is my first victory in Europe. I have good legs and the team gave me an opportunity to go for the stage victory. I crashed on the first descent from Kolovrat and my bike was damaged. I could only use small chainring, but it was enough today. When I passed Fillippo I thought I had to stop, but race director told me to go for the stage. I crashed in that same corner in the first loop, so I remembered the section and I braked.”
Three Italians crossed the finish line 17 seconds behind him, Zana, Ulissi and Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team). Zana was 2nd and got bonification of 6 seconds, Ulissi in 3rd got 4. That makes Zana the new leaderon the race, but only one second ahead of Ullisi. Fortunato is 3rd with a gap of six seconds. Best Slovenian is Mohorič in 6th, he’s 22 seconds behind Zana. With this the race is wide open ahead of the last stage from Vrhnika to Novo mesto, and don’t forget there is a climb to Trška gora just before the finish…
Filipo Zana will wear green tomorrow and is all good after that crash: “On the last descent I took the corner very fast and I crashed. But it’s all good and there are no problems with me, I’m very lucky. On the end our team took 1st and 2nd, which is very good.”
Ide Schelling (BORA – hansgrohe), stage 3 winner, is now also officially in red, he got enough points in the break to take the lead in points classifications. Raul Garcia Pierna (Equipo Kern Pharma) is still the best young rider, with a lead of a minute he should win the competition. New leader in the mountains classifications is Samuele Zoccarato (Green Project – Bardiani CSF – Faizanè).
142,6 km long fifth stage will have two categorized climbs (Zaplana & Trška gora) and three intermediate sprints, but most of all very intense fight for green! |
