Will we get a 106th winner?

Last edition of the race didn’t bring a new name to the list of stage winners in the 152 stages and 30 years old history of the race. We must go to 2021 for the latest addition to the list when Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Caja Rural) became the 105^th name on the list and was at the same time first Spaniard with the stage victory on Tour of Slovenia.

Aberasturi Izaga won 3^rd stage from Brežice to Krško and became 75^th foreign stage winner. Spain became 23^rd country with a stage winner on Tour of Slovenia. Meanwhile there are 30 Slovenians with stage victory on the race, in total they won 55 stages. First among them was Gorazd Štangelj who also won the first prologue of the first edition, that was back in 1993.

Boštjan Mervar holds the record for most stage victories, a record that might be unbeatable. He won seven stages in the years from 1993 to 2005, but he never won more than once on a single race and he never won overall.

Several other riders however did manage to win more than once in the same year. Last was Tadej Pogačar in 2022, first was Robert Pintarič in 1995. Additionally there were 9 more riders with the same success: Olaf Pollack in 1998, Faat Zakirov in 2001, Filippo Pozzatto in 2002, Borut Božič in 2004, Tomaž Nose in 2006, Vincenzo Nibali in 2007, Grega Bole in 2010, Sam Benett in 2017, Primož Roglič in 2018, Phil Bauhaus in 2021 & Rafal Majka in 2022.

But it’s also possible to win Tour of Slovenia without a single stage victory. That actually happened on the very first edition back in 1993 when Boris Premužič won. Same scenario repeated many times, with Valter Bonča in 1995, Branko Filip in 1998, Martin Derganc in 2000, Mitja Mahorič in 2003, Jure Golčer in 2006, Tomaž Nose in 2007, Janez Brajkovič in 2012 and Tiago Machado in 2014.

Tobias Steinhauser holds different kind of record – he won three stages on the same race, but didn’t won overall. In 1994 he won stages with finishes to Gore (Sveti Jurij), Ajdovščina and Vršič.

There are five stages on the schedule in 2023, which means five new opportunities for old and new Tour of Slovenia stage winners.

Janko Hrovat
Photo: Sportida