Schelling takes a surprising victory in Postojna

Ide Schelling (BORA – hansgrohe) grabbed the opportunity that appeared out of nowhere with both hands and won Tour of Slovenia stage from Grosuplje to Postojna. Luka Mezgec (Jayco AlUla) was in second by the smallest of margins, all that happened after the hectic finish that took favorites out of the contention. Luka’s teammate Dylan Groenewegen kept the green jersey.

First 15 kilometers of the stage was just a warmup for everything that waited the peloton, starting with a long, 2^ndcategory climb to Rakitna. Two more categorized climbs followed, but the real struggle for many happened on the small uphill in the last 20 kilometers when teams really set very high pace. Decent breakaway was neutralized by that point and everything was getting ready for another sprint finish, with team Jayco AlUla doing a lot of work to bring Groenewegen in the good position for the third stage victory on the race. Threat of a storm has created additional nervousness, while some parts of the road actually got some rain and things got slippery. Real drama happened at the last roundabout, about 600 meters to the finish line when a large part of the leaders went to the right and some even crashed. The riders who went left surprisingly found themselves in a perfect position for stage victory, Ide Schellinggrab the opportunity with both hands. It looked like Luka Mezgec will take the stage, but Ide was too fast and won by a margin of centimeters.

Officials neutralized last kilometers due to the crash and so Groenewegen kept the overall lead, Ide is now second.

Riders learned about the tragic death of Gino Mäder after the race and Ide was understandably short in his words. He explained that he decided not to go for the result as the roads got slippery, but after the confusion found himself in the perfect position for a lead out and went for it.

Groenewegen kept the green & red jersey, Raul Garcia Pierna (Equipo Kern Pharma) is still the best young cyclist on the race. Blue jersey of the KOM competition leader has a new owner, Viktor Potočki (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), who was first on Rakitna.

Fourth stage is the big one. It will start in Ljubljana and finish in Kobarid, but not before it climbs to Kolovrat twice.

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Photos by Sportida