The peloton rolled out of Kranj facing the absolute definitive test of the Tour of Slovenia: a punishing 185 kilometer queen stage packed with 3743 meters of vertical climbing. The weather conditions were brutally hot, reaching a sweltering 28 degrees, which demanded an immense effort from our staff to keep the riders adequately supplied with ice and water from the team cars. The morning strategy dictated that either Zsombor Palumby or Erik Fetter should animate the early breakaway to contest the first mountain prime on the Dražgoše climb. Palumby successfully fought his way into the move, but the furious pace set by the WorldTour squads was relentless. Recognizing the massive expenditure of energy, the instruction from the team car was to ease off and preserve his strength for the brutal alpine road ahead.
Misfortune then struck our general classification hope, Tomáš Přidal, who suffered a costly puncture followed closely by a broken spoke in his front wheel and malfunctioning brakes. Veljko Stojnić and his teammates quickly dropped back to assist, navigating a rapid 20 second bike exchange before executing a frantic chase through the team cars to pull Přidal back into the bunch. Up ahead, the race exploded on the hors category slopes of the Vršič Pass, where Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe secured a spectacular victory alongside his teammate. Our young Czech leader fought valiantly but ultimately hit his physical limits at the base of the final pass, crossing the line in 28th place and relinquishing the white jersey. To cap off a day of survival, Michal Schuran crossed the line safely after surviving a bizarre incident where a crashing rider hit a traffic island, launching a runaway bicycle directly into him and leaving him bruised but unbroken.
Veljko looks ahead to the national battles
I like stages like this when I have slightly better form, but it was still great preparation for the second part of the season and nationals. We had it even worse at the Giro: this was like an average Giro stage, but the pace was very similar with Bora pushing all day. I’m going to try to get out there again tomorrow, and pretty much the whole team will be trying as well. Our main objective will be the breakaway, but who knows what will happen. It looks like it’s going to be even harder than today…
Overall, I think we did a really good job here. I’m proud of how the guys are racing and how we’re executing most of our objectives stage by stage.
Tomas finds his absolute limits on the giants
I had a mechanical somewhere in the middle of the stage. It wasn’t the end of the world, but having to switch bikes made me lose a few positions.
Today again I tried my best, but those guys are just on another level right now. Of course, I wanted to keep the white jersey, but we all know Omrzel is one of the top favorites, so it was a bit of a long shot 😄. Honestly, I don’t know what I could have done differently: I just hit my limit right before the final climb and got dropped at the very bottom. It wasn’t a tactical mistake, I just didn’t have the legs. That said, the team took amazing care of me and I had everything I needed, so a BIG BIG thanks to them.
Photo: Marcell Lippai
