Welcome to today's third stage of the 2019 Tour de Slovenie! Profile-wise, we're going to witness this year's easiest stage, as it is almost completely flat. However - with more than 180km, it is the longest stage, and we do have wind blowing at up to 30km/h.
The road will take us mostly north-west, whereas the wind is blowing in western direction - meaning we will have a rather fast stage, and the riders must beware of echelons! Not all of the race favorites - mainly the puncheurs - will be looking forward to this.
We will have a slightly undulating first kilometers heading straight north, which will surely lead to some attacks and an early breakaway. We then have another uncategorized hill about mid-stage, but way too far from the finish line to really have an impact, as is the intermediat sprint after 140.6km. What could be more important is that with about 16 kilometers remaining, we'll have 5 kilometers straigt into the headwind, followed by a tailwind section - which could surely entail a very nervous finale.
Nevertheless, the bookies name the expected favorites for today's stage: Houle, Aberasturi, Vanoverschelde, followed by Pelucchi, Matthews and Colbrelli. Lay, Contreras, Kreder and Bar should have their chances, too. And now let's head into the race!
As soon as the riders leave today's departure city, we can see Galdoune, Van Aert and van Zyl attacking, closely followed by Rocchetti, who was already in the BotD yesterday.
The next attacks are launched as the riders reach the first hill - and as yesterday, it's Bilbao trying to escape, followed by Rikunov.
Without any surprise, the peloton isn't really happy about this breakaway group. What IS surprising, however, is that it's Sauber and Philips chasing - what could be their plans? They're not riding for a top sprinter, that's for sure.
The peloton is about to reach the top of the last hill in this early part of the stage. Roughly 20km are done, and the gap is just 1'15. For how long will they keep up this horrendous pace?
That's a really bad moment for having a puncture - Flügel (5th GC) might have some serious discussion with his mechanicians tonight!
However, even though he gets absolutely no help by his teammates, he re-joins the pack about 10km later. The gap is still around 1 minute only, and it's still Sauber and Philips pushing hard.
We have reached the mid-stage hill, and now we can kind of understand the strategy of the two chasing teams, as Mundle and Bovenhuis attack.
They join the leaders very quickly and leave them immediately behind. From the peloton, Daniel and Davison try to follow them, but to no avail.
As the pack's pace now drops with the two chasing teams gone, the gap gets soon up to 2 minutes - with the 6 initial breakaway riders closing the gap to Mundle and Bovenhuis.
So we now have these 8 riders forming our breakaway of the day. Bilbao and van Zyl should be the best sprinters among them, and Mundle is an absolute powerhorse on the flat! van Zyl, Bovenhuis and Van Aert should be able to ride fast on this second half of the race, too. The others will probably need to create some kind of a surprise situation to have a chance of winning - if the BotD succeeds at all.
But there's a long way to go: 80km remaining, and it's now Europcar (Gavenda), ISA (Feng) and Xero (Davison) pushing hard in the peloton. The gap has shrunk to 1'38 again.
As we're approaching the intermediate sprint, the peloton accelerates even more - the high speed plus the crosswind leads to a split in the pack! It's Davison who has shifted up one more gear, with Houle and Bester on his wheel. Sprinter-wise, Contreras and Lay have made the split, too, whereas the GC riders are all in the second group. Are they just trying to catch the leaders before the intermediate sprint, or how will this action continue?
The breakaway is only 1'04 ahead of this group now, with the peloton being 40" behind. 12km to go until the sprint.
And that's the end of today's BotD! 1.5km to go until the intermediate sprint, and there's been a lot of action on the previous 10 kilometers! The original second group has been caught again by the pack, but as soon as this had happened, we saw yet another split!
This time, we have many more sprinters up front, with Houle, Aberasturi, Vanoverschelde, Matthews, Colbrelli, Lay, Contreras... And this time, GC leader Gautier has made it, too, with Serry being the only other puncher in this group! We have the following situation now:
Leaders (sprinters, Gautier)
+ 50" Tybor Hermans
+ 57" Daniel Sterobo
+ 1'21
Peloton
Xero's efforts pay off for the moment, as Houle takes the intermediate sprint and therefore 6 points:
1. Houle
2. Matthews
3. Contreras
The peloton passes the sprint 57" back, but as the sprinters seem to have reached their (intermediate) goal, the front group slows down and we have "Gruppo compatto" with 40km to go.
After a rather calm 10km, Xero, ISA and Europcar take the initiative once more, and it's very probable that the now horrendous tempo won't drop before the finish line anymore!
And we again have a split! Feng leads the peloton into the headwind section, and some riders seem to be too tired to follow! Of today's stage favorites, we can see Houle, Aberasturi, Vanoverschelde, Matthews, Contreras and Kreder in the front group, with Pelucchi, Colbrelli, Lay and Bar having missed the split!
GC-wise, we have some bad surprises, too, as Chiarello, Figueiredo, Flügel (3rd to 5th) and Serry (9th) are in the second group, along with other puncheurs like Waeytens or Kelderman! They'll have to speed up if this stage shouldn't cause serious damage to their GC hopes! 16km to go...
10 kilometers remaining, and the riders are now in a tailwind section, reaching almost 60km/h already at this point! It's Dempster desperately trying to close the gap, together with some Kraftwerk riders.
At the same time, riders lose contact to the front group one by one, currently leaving 33 men ahead. The gap is only 40", but both groups advance about at the same pace.
5 kilometers left, and the gap is still stable at 45". 31 riders will fight for the stage win, as it doesn't seem probable any more that the second group can catch up!
Vandousselaere and Mraouni are ahead, followed by Contreras, Kreder, Debesay, Houle, Aberasturi, Vanoverschelde, Matthews, Feng, Van Niekerk, Tybor and then Kanerva protecting race leader Gautier.
Where are actually Sauber and Philips? They sure are partly responsible for the current race situation, due to their fast racing in the first half of the race. Well, both teams have a single rider ahead in Palini and Maccagli, but without any real hopes for winning the stage. That was a great strategy today...
Even though Europcar have Lay stuck in the second group, they can still afford for Aberasturi leading out Matthews! Behind are Xero with Houle and Debesay, as well as ISA with Contreras and Mraouni. Kreder and Vanoverschelde are in the mix, too, but they're on their own!
These 8 riders seem to be fighting for stage win glory, as they've got a small gap on the others! The positions are as follows:
Mraouni
Debesay
Contreras
Matthews
Houle
Aberasturi
Kreder
Vanoverschelde
The remaining 23 riders around Gautier are 15" back, whereas the peloton now already has a one minute deficit!
Under the red kite, Debesay, being the weakest sprinter in the group, tries a surprise attack! Mraouni tries to close the gap, with his sprinter Contreras on his wheel. The four others are almost on one line, with Vanoverschelde trying to move up front!
But, wait - four others? Yes, as Aberasturi has faded and will soon be swallowed by the next group - that is already 35" behind the leaders! The pack is 40" further back.
Only 500m to go, and Mraouni has done his job and has stopped pedalling. Matthews and Vanoverschelde have got some meters to make up, too, while Contreras, Kreder and Houle now are almost side by side!
300 meters left, and Kreder has taken the lead! However, the margin on Houle and Contreras is tiny, so everything still seems to be possible! It's a rather hard time for Matthews, though, who at least has now passed Vanoverschelde.
Just 100m left - who do you think will win this one? Houle, Kreder and Contreras again on level terms - what a thriller!
And it's Hugo Houle taking a huge win for Xero Racing! He edges out Emiliano Contreras on the final meters, while a tired Michel Kreder takes third. Michael Matthews' acceleration was too late - that must be a big bummer for Europcar, whose line-up was cleary targeting today's stage.
Mekseb Debesay then adds a stunning 5th place to Xero's great day, while Salah Eddine Mraouni edges out Kobe Vanoverschelde for 6th. And as the others are nowhere to be seen yet, Mraouni, who was just 1'02 back in GC, will start counting the seconds now...
40"...41"...42"...43"...44"...45" - and Mikhail Ignatiev wins the sprint of the purchase ahead of Eduardo Sepulveda and GC leader Cyril Gautier. These three complete today's Top 10. And Gautier saved his jersey by 17" - who would have thought he'd be in danger of losing it on a flat stage!
Next are:
11. Costa
12. Palini - what an effort by Philips to get a mere 12th place...
13. Gallopin
14. Cornu
15. Shikai
16. Nepomnyachsniy
17. Izagirre
18. Matsumoto
19. Rolland
20. Christensen
...
27. Maccagli - even worse for Sauber!
57" later, Kuboki wins the peloton's sprint - meaning that Flügel & Co. lose 1'42 on today's stage! Certainly a bummer for some - and a great day for others!
First of all, it's a great day for Hugo Houle, today's stage winner!
However, he was too far back in the GC to really get something more out of his great performance, as he's still 1'55 back - s.t. with Flügel - but he'll probably lose a lot tomorrow. This could hold even more for Cyril Gautier, who was able to defend his leader jersey, but he'll definitely be threatened by Mraouni and others tomorrow!
Gautier and Houle are now on par for the points jersey, both having 31 points. The Frenchman leads the standings, but the Canadian will wear the jersey tomorrow on his behalf.
No changes in the KoM standings, as there were no points available today. Ben Hermans will wear the jersey again tomorrow.
ISA - Hexacta takes over the team standings with a great performance today - three riders in the Top 10 is a great show!
They take the lead in the U25 standings as well, as Gaudu was in the peloton and Emiliano Contreras got a huge stage result with his 2nd place!
Well, that's a surprising result - and this flat stage definitely played a role for the GC! While Gautier is still ahead, Mraouni should definitely be able to gain 17" on him tomorrow. But given the length of the ITT, Sepulveda and Cornu could take the jersey as well. Shikai and Rolland are still rather close, too, and they're very good TTers as well. This too holds for Nepomnyachsniy, Izagirre and Costa, but they're further back. The four 80+ TTers are far back, and so we can probably expect a duel between Sepulveda and Cornu for the GC lead after tomorrow's stage.
But hey, today has clearly shown that we have to expect the unexpected - so what awaits us tomorrow?
Tour de Slovenie 
