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Tour of Slovenia continues in great atmosphere and fantastic support all along the route. On the top same old, Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) was again fastest and has defended the green jersey, again with great help from Luka Mezgec. Best Slovenian on stage was Tilen Finkšt (Adria Mobil) in 11th place.
164 kilometers long stage from Žalec to Ormož went according to the predictions, with long breakaway that also included number of Slovenian riders, and sprint finish on the end. The surprise was that the final climb to Jeruzalem didn’t break the group, despite BORA – hansgrohe pulling really hard. With last climb out of the way and peloton back together, everything was ready for a sprint finish. Dylan Groenewegen was victorious after a great lead out from Luka Mezgec and Lukas Poestlberger, despite having more rivals than on the first stage. Second and third were Matteo Moschetti(Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious).
Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) after the stage: “On the last climb to BORA decided to go full gas, that made things a little bit harder. But we survived and came back to Ormož in a group. There was a little bit of misunderstanding with Luka, but again he did a great lead out, this time together with Poestlberger. I lost a little bit of speed on the end when Luka went on the right, but this is also a good preparation before we go out to Tour de France. The lead out was really good and we again won the stage – thanks to the whole team, it was really impressive.
Today we had some help from Bahrain, so it was better for us, we also had one more guy in the finish. Lukas took us in the good position and Luka did another textbook lead out.”
Luka Mezgec has again proved why he has a nickname “professor” and will surly play an important role in the Jayco AlUla Tour de France campaign.
Dylan has kept the green jersey of the race leader and red jersey for the points classifications. White jersey of the best young cyclists will stay on the shoulders of Raul Garcia Pierna (Equipo Kern Pharma) for at least one more day. Indigo jersey for the best climber has a new owner – Giovanni Aleotti (BORA – hansgrohe).
3rd stage will be even harder, with two big climbs and no flat meter in the last half of the race. 173 kilometers long stage will take riders from Grosuplje to Postojna. |
