Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox) took a hard-fought win in stage three of the Tour de Slovenie, beating Janez Brajkovic (Astana) to the line in Skofja Loka. Pozzovivo also zips up the leader’s jersey with one stage to go, the final 17km time trial tomorrow.
The duo attacked their select group on the third category one climb of the day, on the second time up Soriska Mountain, which crested with still 44km to race. But on the descent and the steady downhill to the finish, they held the chasing group at bay, with a one minute, thirty-second gap all the way to the finish.
The Italian was quicker than the Slovenian to the finish line, and gets the leader’s blue jersey as a result. But Brajkovic, the far superior time trialist, looks to be in great shape to take his first Tour de Slovenie title tomorrow.
“It was very difficult, because the last climb was forty kilometers away from the finish,” Pozzovivo commented afterward. “With Jani and I working together, we got to the finish by ourselves.”
The third day of racing out of four, and Slovenia’s queen stage, began in Ivancna Gorica, with 219 kilometers scheduled. In a hectic start, with multiple unsuccessful escape attempts, a crash took down four riders, eventually forcing Anders Lund (Saxo Bank) to abandon.
After 45 minutes of racing, a group of eight got away, including Klemen Stimulak (Radenska), Harald Totsching (Tirol), Vitaliy Buts (Lampre-ISD), David Tanner (Saxo Bank), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Marco Frapporti (Team Idea), Danilo Napolitano (Acqua & Sapone), and Marco Canola (Colnago-CSF Inox). Their advantage topped out at five minutes, with Liquigas-Cannondale helping lead the main bunch in support of Kristjan Koren, who was vowing an attack on the second climb of the day.
The leading group was reduced to seven after Napolitano was dropped on the first climb, and on the descent, the peloton had closed the gap to around three minutes. On the second climb of the day, the Pokljuka, the gap moved back out toward five minutes. Having already taken maximum points on the first climb of the Soriska, Van Hecke again was first to the top of the second climb.
Liquigas-Cannondale stepped on the gas behind, and under the impetus of Koren, an elite group of 14 riders moved away from the peloton. Amongst them were Koren, Brajkovic, Pozzovivo, Danilo Di Luca (Acqua & Sapone), Tomaz Nose (Adria Mobil), Jure Golčer (Tirol), and Jan Polanc (Radenska). Overall leader Simone Ponzi (Astana) was dropped.
On the descent off the Pokljuka, three more joined the chasing group, including Diego Ulissi (Lampre-ISD). Halfway up the third and final climb, the elite chasing group merged with the escape, forming a group of 24, until Pozzovivo and Brajkovic made their move.
First they had 20 seconds, and then a minute, an advantage they took all the way to the finish. Koren led the chasing group home, taking third and setting himself up nicely for his own run at the title tomorrow in the time trial.