Team's plan

Polanc will be our main contender for this short TT , but as team that don't have so good timetrialists , we won't set our targets so high.

Squad

Startlist

Great weather conditions in Slovenia today, just perfect day to start 4days race. Nothing so impressive and interesting happened, so we're just going to mention our best guy and winner.

As expected , our best guy was Polanc, finishing on 22nd position with 18" seconds behind the winner of this Prologue , Jonathan Castroviejo.



Castroviejo got this with 3 seconds of advantage in front of Orica GreenEdge's veteran, Svein Tuft.

1	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	8'13
2	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	+ 4
3	Svein Tuft	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Rubén Plaza	Movistar Team	+ 7
5	Zakkari Dempster	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 10
6	José Herrada	Movistar Team	+ 12
7	Tom Danielson	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
8	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
9	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 14
10	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.

Post-race comment

Quite disappointing. We didn't expect win, but finishing out of TOP20 is not what we expected , especially not on home field.

Team's Plan

Hmm, this stage is ranked as flat stage that should finish in mass sprint. Last hill is going to make huge problems for sprinters , so we'll search for our chance there. Polanc is going to try something there ,definitely!

Squad

Startlist

Hot day , 36 degrees! Strange profile of stage, so we're going to see some fun, definitely.

Right after race started, we had plan. Our breakaway guy for today was Marko P.. Our target was getting as much KOTM points as that's possible. 2 other guys , Hudecek and Demarin joined Pavlic , so show could start.



They got some big gap, something near 9 minutes. However , guys from RusVelo and NetApp - Endura managed to retain control of this race, and reduced that gap. Finally , right before 20km-to-go banner , peloton caught BOTD. Our goal was accomplished, since Pavlic got maximum number of points.

Last hill meant start of real fight. Almost all favourites attacked at the bottom of the hill, so now , we had favourites group. Polanc got power , and stayed in that group. Sinkiewitz, Plaza , Castroviejo , Danielson and Firsanov were with him.



Nothing impressive happened on that downhill , so sprint could start. Jan was total outsider here , since he was out of energy so his goal was just to get same time as winning guy, at the end of the stage.

As expected , Castroviejo won this sprint with a style. He is well known for his sprinting skills so that was not big surprise.



Great race for us, Polanc's performance was just outstanding and we should expect some good GC result now. Let's take a look at official results board.

1	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	4h07'57
2	Rubén Plaza	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	s.t.
4	Jan Polanc	Radenska	s.t.
5	Tom Danielson	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
6	Patrik Sinkewitz	Meridiana Kamen Team	s.t.
7	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 2'16
8	Marko Pavlic	Radenska	s.t.
9	Roger Kluge	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 4'46
10	Andrej Rajsp	Radenska	s.t.

1	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	4h15'48
2	Rubén Plaza	Movistar Team	+ 13
3	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	+ 18
4	Tom Danielson	Garmin - Sharp	+ 34
5	Jan Polanc	Radenska	+ 40
6	Patrik Sinkewitz	Meridiana Kamen Team	+ 43
7	Marko Pavlic	Radenska	+ 2'40
8	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 3'01
9	Svein Tuft	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 5'12
10	Zakkari Dempster	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 5'18

1	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	27	52
2	Rubén Plaza	Movistar Team	24	38
3	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	16	36
4	Marko Pavlic	Radenska	26	26
5	Tom Danielson	Garmin - Sharp	12	21
6	Svein Tuft	Orica - GreenEdge	0	16
7	Zakkari Dempster	Team NetApp - Endura	4	16
8	Jan Polanc	Radenska	14	14
9	José Herrada	Movistar Team	0	10
10	Roger Kluge	Team NetApp - Endura	7	10

1	Jan Polanc	Radenska	4h07'57	4h16'28 (1)
2	Marko Pavlic	Radenska	+ 2'16	+ 2'00 (2)
3	Andrej Rajsp	Radenska	+ 4'46	+ 5'12 (40)
4	Ilnur Zakarin	RusVelo	s.t.	+ 4'42 (3)
5	Martin Otonicar	Radenska	s.t.	+ 5'00 (28)
6	Jarlinson Pantano	Colombia	s.t.	+ 4'59 (26)
7	Julian Alaphilippe	Etixx - iHNed	s.t.	+ 4'51 (16)
8	Cameron Meyer	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 4'42 (4)
9	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.	+ 4'50 (11)
10	Alex Howes	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 4'45 (5)

1	Movistar Team	12h28'37	12h53'35 (1)
2	Radenska	+ 2'16	+ 3'02 (2)
3	Garmin - Sharp	+ 4'46	+ 5'13 (4)
4	RusVelo	s.t.	+ 5'06 (3)
5	Meridiana Kamen Team	s.t.	+ 5'54 (5)
6	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 7'02	+ 7'16 (6)
7	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 9'32	+ 9'57 (8)
8	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.	+ 10'08 (9)
9	Colombia	s.t.	+ 10'22 (12)
10	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.	+ 9'55 (7)

Post-race comment

Just great result for us and Polanc. Hopes this form will continue until the end of this race. Pink color is dominating on results board , right now.

Team's Plan

It's simple. Make Polanc best position for last mountain and everything's on him right after. TBH , as manager , i hope Jan can make TOP3 here. Let's see!

Squad

Starlist

Probably last day that can make some changes in GC. If we manage to get good form today , it will be perfect!

10kms after start of this stage, few guys (Danacik , Fajt , Cieslik and Vakoc) decided to attack. That first breakaway was BOTD , this time.



On bottom on first mountain , Bardet and Rebellin attacked and they managed to catch first group right on top of that hill. BOTD looks dangerous for stage win , now. Meanwhile , only 30 guys kept pace of Movistar, and stood in peloton.
After that, nothing interesting happened until final mountain.

On bottom of final hill , Firsanov attacked , and Polanc followed him , without even going out of his seat. Seems like Jan was having a great day!



Totally different battle was fought between Rebellin and Bardet. In same time , both of them were thinking about GC and stage win. It was so close , but at the end, CCC's veteran managed to get in front of AG2R's young blood. David Rebellin is winner of 3rd stage of Tour de Slovenie.



More important was fight behind them. Castroviejo already gave up on bottom of that mountain, so Plaza had all doors opened for attack. He used that and caught Polanc/Firsanov. They finished in one group. What a hard stage!



Jan was so strong on today's deadly stage, but let's check results to see if he managed to get into TOP3.

*Accidently pressed "Next" twice , so i was unable to export results. Could only show you GC.

Post-race comment

Woohoo! Jan got podium (as we hoped) even on this strong competition. Only 1 stage left, but chances are so small that he will go off the podium now. We're happy!