189 hilly kilometers await the riders in the final stage of this year's Tour of Slovenia, with an uphill finish to decide the outcome of the race. Christian leads going into the stage by four seconds over Craddock and 1'41 over Meyer.
Seven riders in the morning breakaway: Izagirre Seibeb Kangangi Magnusson Wahyudi (2nd KoM, 20 pts) Roe (31st GC, +7'22) Puusepp
Five riders formed a counter attack, most likely with the mountain points as goal: Fumic (3rd KoM, 10 pts) Schlegel (4th KoM, 10 pts) Blums (5th KoM, 6 pts) Hodeg (6th KoM, 4 pts) Anguilet
Wahyudi takes the first KoM ahead of Roe and Puusepp. With these points the Indonesian ties with Rocchetti at 26 points, who decides to stay in the peloton for now. The gap is 2'33 with 161 kilometers to go, the chasers have been caught...
or have they? Hodeg gives it another go once they had been caught, soon followed by Blums, Fumic and Schlegel. All riders who had scored KoM points before today and hope to challenge Wayhudi for the title. There are still max. 30 points on offer.
Puusepp beats Wayhudi to the second KoM of the day, but that brings the latter's total to 30 with 24 points available. Only Rocchetti, Schlegel, Fumic, Puusepp, Blums and Hodeg could theoretically beat him. The chasing group containing four of these riders had already caught the leading group before the climb, with Schlegel taking two points on the last KoM sprint.
Schlegel does what he needs to do, but with Wayhudi comfortably in second place he doesn't gain much. With 120 kilometers to go the gap to the peloton, where there is no such thing as an organized chase, is 5'26.
Virtual standings in the KoM:
Wahyudi
36
Rocchetti
26
Schlegel
18
Bauer, currently ninth in the GC, is dropped from the peloton on one of the smaller hills! Rothaus sends the entire team back to help him, it didn't look like he had a mechanical or something, just bad position.
Bangota, Valio and Campari finally took charge of the peloton and with 90k to go the gap is down to 4'30. Kangangi wins the only intermediate sprint of the day, because he was leading the group and nobody cared about the points and bonus seconds. Rothaus successfully managed to return Bauer to the peloton.
Six more points for Wayhudi, who is now mathematically certain of the KoM title. Rocchetti currently leads the peloton instead of chasing the KoM, possibly at orders to protect GC leader Christian. Even if he were to take both remaining mountain sprints he wouldn't overtake Wayhudi.
After helping out Bauer, Mollema attacks with a bit over 60 kilometers to go. He needs to bridge two minutes to the leading group, where Izagirre and Hodeg had to leave a small gap.
Schlegel takes another KoM to get two points behind Rocchetti for second place. It will likely be his last though because, after Mollema was brought back quickly, the entire breakaway is now caught by the peloton. ENI has been setting a hard pace for the last few kilometers, and more and more people are struggling to remain in contact with the group. However, no major player for today has been dropped as of yet.
Hoelgaard attacks just before the final KoM, not just to take the points but he also establishes a gap to the peloton. He's second in the youth classification at 2'30 from Uwizeyimana, who is currently struggling at the back of the group. Di Maggio, Gautier and Zaini are ready at the front, with Christian a bit further back but still relatively well placed. Craddock is a lot further in the group but in the process of making up places as we speak.
The Norwegian opens up a gap of about 45 seconds on the flat section with 15 kilometers to go. Behind him a group of 30 riders: Amanuel, Di Maggio, Mancuso, Serry, Skjerping Ben Nasser, Cataldo, Christian, Rocchetti Craddock, Godoy, Sepulveda, Wallays Haavardsholm, Schurter, Zaini Othman, Pibernik, Reus Kadri, Vichot Hugentobler, Weiss Meyer Gautier Siskevicius Warbasse Gonzalez Cortes Teklit Haas
A group with Zoidl (5th) and Bauer (9th) is 44 seconds behind, another group with Martin (3rd), Kireva (8th) and Uwizeyimana (U25 leader) is a further minute behind.
10 kilometers to go and Hoelgaard managed to increase his gap to a minute. Teklit attacks from the chasing group together with Zaini and Kadri. ENI is now forced to chase as team with most riders remaining in the group. Campari protects Christian who looks to be struggling a bit.
Onto the final climb, where Zaini got clear of his two fellow attackers and goes after Hoelgaard. Group Zoidl is already one and a half minute behind with group Martin at nearly three. The winner of the stage and the GC will come from the front thirty rider.
Gautier attacks! Meyer and Siskevicius jump on his wheel and quickly establish a gap. Meyer needs 1'41 on Christian (excluing bonus seconds) and this is a good first step. Hoelgaard is dropping back with Zaini within 20 seconds and the new chasing group at 50.
Zaini caught Hoelgaard, Di Maggio jumped to the group Meyer. Sepulveda leads the remaining favourites to keep Craddock's chances at the overall victory alive...
while all this attacking proves to be too much for Christian to handle, as he has to let go of the group. Ben Nasser and Cataldo sacrifice their own chances to drag the Brit up the mountain and limit his time loss as much as possible. Warbasse (6th) is also in this group of stragglers.
1500 meters to go when Di Maggio, Meyer and Siskevicius caught and passed the leading duo. They will be deciding who wins the stage. For Meyer it's a case of gaining as much seconds on Christian and Craddock. Gautier surprisingly couldn't follow the pace and dropped back towards Kadri and Vichot, who attacked from behind. Group Craddock is at 1'29, with the American fighting to win the GC. Christian has given up hope of winning, but at 2'41 he might remain on the podium.
Siskevicius opens the sprint with Meyer on his wheel. Di Maggio was caught napping while Hoelgaard and Zaini seem to have no energy left for a final dash.
The Lithuanian has just enough left to keep the Australian behind. Evaldas Siskevicius wins the final stage of the Tour of Slovenie 2018! Meyer though picking up 12 bonus seconds, which will likely give him the GC. Hoelgaard comes from behind to take third place away from Di Maggio, with Zaini in fifth. The Norwegian also takes the youth jersey with Uwizeyimana at great distance.
Vichot and Kadri take sixth and seventh place for Delvaux at 30 seconds. Gautier with a disappointing eight at 59 seconds, which means he drops behind Siskevicius in the GC by two seconds. Hugentobler completes the stage top ten.
Here's Craddock, who lost 2'02 on the stage to finish 13th. This gives Travis Meyer the confirmation: he is the winner of Tour de Slovenie 2018 by 37 seconds over Craddock!. Meyer also takes the points jersey with a stage win and now a second place.
Christian put up a hell of a fight, but Meyer and Craddock were stronger. He finishes in 35th place today, losing 3'11, which is enough to take third place in the GC, over a minute to fourth-placed Siskevicius and fifth-placed Gautier. Di Maggio moves up to sixth ahead of Warbasse, Gonzalez Cortes, Kadri and Zoidl, who rounds out the top ten in the general classification. Banco de Bogota wins the teams classification.
