Rigoberto Uran conquers climbing finish at Tour of Slovenia
Jun 15 2018 08:59 pm CET
EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
EF Education First's Rigoberto Uran has won the third stage of the Tour of Slovenia. The Colombian won the climbing final sprint against Daryl Impey.
The third stage of the Slovenian race took place over a hilly challenging course that covered 175.7 kilometres between Slovenske Konjice and Celje. The breakaway of the day had two stars: Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Roger Kluge (Mitchelton-Scott).
The duo created a gap of more than five minutes with the peloton, which was pulled by teams like LottoNL-Jumbo and Dimension Data. The second category climb of the day was close to the finish and it was too hard for the two men in front, who were caught with 22 kilometres to go.
At 20 kilometres to go and with the pack diminished because of the climb, LottoNL-Jumbo's Primoz Roglic attacked and was followed by Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe). The duo was soon caught by others and all formed a group that rode together the ascent of Celjska Koca.
Jai Hindley (Sunweb), Roglic and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) attacked at the descent. The downhill skills of Mohoric gave him the advantage over the other two, who were eventually caught by the chasers.
While the Slovenian continued in front, several riders regrouped in the chase ahead of the ascending climb. Sunweb's Michael Storer was the first to get to Mohoric but soon riders like Roglic, Uran and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) also arrived at the front.
Roglic attacked and seemed stronger, but in the last metres was overtaken by Impey and Uran. The two riders sprinted to the end and the Colombian crossed the finish line centimetres ahead of the South African champion, while Roglic was third.
Uran also took the lead of the General Classification.
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