No surprises in Celje, Piethie fastest again

The third stage of this year's Tour of Slovenia and the second victory for the New Zealander! Laurence Piethie completed the work of his team Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, for which Jan Tratnik did the lion's share of the work. The Slovenians were not in the forefront this time, but Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) maintained contact with the fastest. Big day in the mountains is now ahead of us!

Piethie increased his lead in the overall standings thanks to time deduction and will also wear the green jersey on the fourth stage. He was fastest again on today’s, 133 km long stage from Maribor to Celje, this time around the cyclists of the Spanish teams came closest to him: Ivan Cobo Cayon (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Stefano Oldani (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) took second and third, respectively.

“Bulls” controlled the stage and didn’t let breakaway group to go ahead for more than two minutes and a half. It was a three man effort with Slovenian Marcel Gladek (Factor Racing) in the group, but the break was don the start of the last climb. The pace to category II climb to Celje hut was not as strong as on the first day, and a group of more than 40 cyclists came to Celje together. Dušan Rajović (Solution Tech Nippo Rali), the winner of the second stage, was not among them. The only Slovenian in the first group was Omrzel.

Saturday on the Tour of Slovenia will be of course a completely different day. Climbers will take centre stage, but the scorching heat and the size of the mountain pass Vršič will not be easy on them.

Laurence Pithie (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe): “My teammates set a great pace, they managed to get rid of lots of fast guys again, but there were still some quick riders at the end. We had the plan to go for me and ride my pace on the climb, and it worked perfectly. I’m super happy. After the disappointment yesterday the team rode whole day and could’t not win today. Now I can be domestic for my leaders, Lipowitz and Pellizzari. They are real champions, they did the lead out for me in the last three days, which is really incredible and now it’s time for me to pay them back.”

Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious): “An interesting stage, with very high temperatures, so the cooling was the key. Nothing shocking happened at Celje hut, the pace was normal and we finished the stage with a sprint. I'm focusing on myself, but we all know who the main competitors are. I feel great ahead of Vršič.”

Jan Tratnik (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe): “Cycling is a tough sport and only one out of 150 cyclists wins every day. If it's a member of your team, it really means a lot and makes all the effort worthwhile. It's a great feeling. But I can't wait to go to Vršič. My first Tour of Slovenia, even the first stage, went over Vršič. I'll do everything for Florian and Pellizzari, and I'll try to enjoy it and do my best.”

The fourth stage from Kranj to Kranjska Gora will be almost 185 kilometres long, and the cyclists have a hellish day ahead of them with high temperatures and three categorized climbs. The start will be at 10:20.

STAGE 3 RESULTS

Photos: Sportida.com, video: Televizija Slovenija