Sam Bennett takes first stage and green jersey

Irish Sam Bennett (Bora – Hansgrohe) is the winner of the first stage of 24^th edition of Tour of Slovenia! He was the strongest in the sprint finish in city of Kočevje, where he outsprinted Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain - Merida) and local favorite Luka Mezgec (Orica-Scott). Bennett is now in green, new color of the leader’s jersey on the Slovenian tour.

The highly anticipated #FightForGreen started today in Koper on the Slovenian coast and finished in the hart of pristine Slovenian forests in Kočevje, as expected with the sprint finish. Irish Sam Bennett (Bora – Hansgrohe) was one of the favorites for the stage, but he said he was surprised by the victory: “I must admit that today I didn’t expect stage victory. I’m still feeling tired from Giro and I’m surprised over this amazing result. After the crash in that last corner positions changed somewhat and I saw my opportunity for a victory and I took it. Thanks to my team I did it!”

Battle for second was fierce, photo finish showed that Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain – Merida) was just slightly faster than the local hero Luka Mezgec (Orica-Scott). Mezgec was aiming for more: “I was third, but I’m still a little bit disappointed. I had good feeling in my legs and I was going for the stage victory. Sonny Colbrelli did a slalom on the finish straight and I had to brake twice because of that. That’s a shame, I had a good chance to take first victory of the season. I can’t comment the crash on the end, I didn’t see or hear anything.”

Race fans saw a classical stage today, one with breakaway of nine riders early on and calm ride to the last kilometers. Nine escapees were fighting for points on two intermediate sprints, but the final success was never meant to be. Young Žiga Jerman (Rog – Ljubljana) however took the escape to his full advantage and the reward was white jersey. Italian Luca Pacioni (Androni – Sidermec – Bottechia) is in blue, today’s winner Sam Bennett is in green. He also got a special trophy of a bear for his great performance today – brown bear is a symbol of Kočevje area and a resident of forest around it.

Everybody was of course most eager to see what Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) will do on his comeback race. He was 10^th, just behind Bennett’s teammate Rafal Majka, favorite for the overall standings. Quickly after the stage Mark posted on his Instagram account: “Hard to start racing again in mid-June. Tour of Slovenia is the best race for it, for sure. Today was about my physical feelings more than a result. My Team Dimension Data did an amazing job that would normally produced a win, but I couldn’t finish their work.”

The only black dot on the beautiful stage that took the cycling caravan across the Slovenian green countryside was a crash in the final meters of the stage. Race director Bogdan Fink also commented on that: “The ice is broken, first stage is behind us and everything went as planned. Group crash in the very end of the race is of course exception, but at the same time part of almost every bicycle race. On the end nobody got seriously injured. I’m also happy because Slovenia is now seen from the “air” and on the TV screens around the world.”

Second stage will start and finish in Slovenia’s capital and biggest city Ljubljana. A look on the stage profile will reveal that we can again expect a sprint finish.

Photos by Vid Ponikvar / Sportida