Flat NC in Slovenia. OTP Bank with Mezgec have the strongest sprinter. His support Ilesic also belongs to the faster riders though having only one team mate could be crucial.
Other favourites are Kump or Dzamastagic. Only 2nd having a team mate though.
Biggest team is Severstal and with Bole they also have a nice option. But controlling the race and then struggling against stronger sprinters isn`t ideal neither.
Festina with star rider Spilak or Once with Brajkovic might have the most popular names but the wrong profile. Other teams are Gazelle with Furdi/Koren/Tratnik and Fablok with Stimulak/Svab.
For a long time the peloton had everything under control. But about race half we see a break of 3 riders. And it`s no surprise really to see two Gazelle riders in there as tactically this team is probably the very best and their riders love to attack.
It`s Koren and Tratnik for them but they won`t be too happy about the 3rd rider here. Severstal with a brilliant move sending their leader in Bole. So a clear sprint advantage for him.
Who is supposed to work behind? Once does have 3 riders but no leader. And all leaders would need to work themselves.
So we see a slowdown behind.
The same picture all day. Bole the best sprinter but not happy with the 2:1 situation. So he attacks and attacks. But Gazelle is keeping the pace high and never allows him to get a gap.
Then with 20km to go the situation changes. Now it`s Gazelle playing out their number card as Koren attacks. Bole now has to work to get the gap closed again.
But just when he did exactly this, Koren attacks again. Nicely done.
Though Bole is not just anybody. He is one of the stronger riders in this field and proves this by chasing him down once more.
10km and the next attack. Once more Koren as Tratnik seems to be the weakest of those 3.
And 4km later Bole did not have closed the gap and the smaller it gets the stronger the next attack. Also the glueing of Tratnik surely annoys Bole, who looks to be in a bad situation right now.
3km left and still Koren has a 22s gap. And while Bole tries to close the gap, he is not getting much closer. Instead Tratnik always closes the gap to him instead.
So it is a nice and deserved win for Gazelle. Koren is the new Slovenian National Champion after a great team performance. Very well played.
Bole behind him in 2nd with a 35s gap. Tratnik as 3rd today.
The ITT is really close in between the top 3. RR winner Koren and Brajkovic are very similar time trialists and Simon Spilak also has proven a lot of times how to ride against the clock.
The 10km mark is reached by all riders already and we see a small surprise. Spilak with a bad day. He is 4th only! 33s down.
This means, Stimulak has a great ride. As 3rd he is 12s faster. Huge surprise seeing that his skills normally are quite a bit weaker.
But who is 1st?
It`s not Brajkovic. The Once rider is 10s slower than...
...Koren. After the RR he also wants the ITT jersey.
Koren also has the lead at half time. He extended it to 15s while Stimulak is still 3rd but with 27s already. Weak Spilak with almost 1min already.
Last chance for Brajkovic but it`s not looking good. With 10km to go, he needs to gain 22s! So he lost another few on the last kilometers.
So it`s Koren defending his TT jersey. He goes 26s faster than Brajkovic.
Simulak with one of his best TT`s in 3rd and only 42s behind.
Spilak at 1'36 with a horrible performance.
Kristjan Koren
