Pogačar takes his second Tour of Slovenia

Every day on 2022 Tour of Slovenia was spectacular, same is true also for the last stage. Slovenians Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) & Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) went head-to-head for a stage victory, Tadej was faster and he took his second stage on the Slovenian tour. He's also the overall winner. Race winners are also spectators that supported the cyclists on every kilometer of the five days long race.

Stage from Vrhnika to Novo mesto was decided in the last kilometers, on and after the climb to Trška gora (355 m). Big group caught all escapees under the mountain, soon Tadej Pogačar attacked and only Matej Mohorič could follow. Rafal Majka caught the Slovenians on the descent, after that they went safely to the finish line in Novo mesto. Majka didn’t sprint, Tadej was slightly faster than Matej. Second stage victory for Tadej of the race and confirmation of the overall victory.

Tadej Pogačar after the end of the stage: “We went to defend the green jersey today, but on the end I felt good on the final climb. Bahrain started to push really hard, they attacked like they always do. I counterattacked and tried to get to the top as fast as possible and downhill as slow as possible. In the end there were three guys, me, Rafa and Mohorič. I gave my best in the sprint because all guys work really hard these week, all five of us, and I had to give it all.
Novo mesto is really like home of cycling in Slovenia, Tour of Slovenia always ends here. Today’s finish was a little bit different, but I like it even with the group sprint. It’s amazing to finish Tour of Slovenia like this.”

Matej was disappointed as his team worked hard for stage victory, but he quickly said that he’ll rather win in France. Matej, we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

Tadej won two stages on 28^th Tour of Slovenia, in total he and Majka won 4/5 stages for the UEA Team Emirates. Pogačar is also overall winner of the race, Majka is second, Domen Novak (Bahrain Victorious) third. Best young rider on the race was Vojtech Repa (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA). Tadej won points classification, Rafal took mountains classifications.

Race winners are also fans that supported cyclists on virtually every kilometer of the race. Organizers estimated that 80 thousand people were on the 4^th stage alone, tens of thousands more were on other four stages. We’ll never learn how many there were in total, but it’s very likely that this became the sports event with most spectators in Slovenia. Host cities made great campaigns and the competition for BEST HOST will be strongest to date.

Live TV broadcast went to 130 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Middle East. 140 journalists reported from the race, including correspondents for some of the best-known cycling and sports media. Let’s round up these stats with one more number – 2100. That many people are involved in the organization of the race, by far the biggest share of them are volunteers that keep the race safe.

The Tour of Slovenia is over, other tour will start soon. Surly best from Slovenia will also came on the very top of Tour de France as well!