8 World Tour team to compete on 2018 Tour of Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia – 25^th edition of Tour of Slovenia will be strongest to day, with incredible eight UCI World Tour team on the start list. Five stages, including individual time-trial, will be on schedule from 13^th to 17^th June.

“Interest among cycling teams was great and we’re still getting applications for 25^th edition of the race. 22 teams with total of 154 cyclists will race on 2018 Tour of Slovenia, including eight UCI World Tour teams. They are Bora – hansgrohe, LottoNL-Jumbo, Dimension Data, Katusha - Alpecin, Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain Merida, EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale and last, but not least – Team Sunweb. 2017 winner Rafal Majka will came back to defend his title, meanwhile Slovenian biggest hope is Primož Roglič, who already won Tour de Romandie and Itzula Basque Country in 2018 season. Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel & Caleb Ewan will be favorites for the sprints in the first and second stage. All big stars of cycling will not have an easy job, they will have to face Slovenian aces Matej Mohorič, Luka Mezgec and Jani Brajkovič to mention just a few of them,” said Bogdan Fink, organizing director of the race. He was happy to add: “25^th edition of the race will have strongest competition to date, in fact Tour of Slovenia has become one of the strongest 2^nd category races in Europe. This brings a lot of satisfaction, but also additional challenges, among other we already had to turn down another World Tour team.”

2018 Tour of Slovenia will be 664 kilometers long, it will have five stages and live broadcast on Eurosport & Slovenian national television. First two stages will be reserved for sprinters, then the mountains begin, one of the highlights will be so called Alps stage on Saturday. That stage will lead across three mountain passes, in fact it got a little big harder than planned due to road conditions and changes on the route. Last day is reserved for 21,5 km long individual time-trial.

Tadej Pogačar (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum) and Jani Brajkovič (Adria Mobil Cycling) shared their insides on the race route and they both agree that the race is very hard and only a complete cyclist can take the overall victory. Tadej is one of the most promising young talents from Slovenia who surprised a lot of people with 5^th place overall on the 2017 edition, this year he aims even higher. Jani meanwhile already won the Slovenian tour back in 2012 when the race had a very similar configuration as this year.

Tour of Slovenia will again promote the slogan #FightForGreen, which is reference for the green jersey of the overall leader on the race and also typically green countryside of Slovenia. This is why Slovenian Tourist Board is deeply involved in the race; Maja Pak, the Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board explains: “We will promote Slovenia and its destinations through the Tour of Slovenia, this is why cooperation with Eurosport is so vital to us. We had also created a special program of Slovenian cycling ambassadors, this year we had selected cycling enthusiasts from Italy, Belgium, Spain, France and United States; they will have a unique opportunity to experience Slovenia by bike and also compete on the race Goni Pony on Vršič Pass. They will all share their impressions on social media platforms and give you all a look at Slovenia – the perfect country for active people, but also a land with reach cuisine and culture.”

2018 Tour of Slovenia, 13^th – 17^th June 2018

Stage 1: Lendava – Murska Sobota (with short visit to Hungary), 159 km

Stage 2: Maribor – Rogaška Slatina, 152,7 km

Stage 3: Slovenske Konjice – Celje, 175,7 km

Stage 4: Ljubljana – Kamnik (with short visit to Austria), 155,2 km

Stage 5: (ITT) Trebnje – Novo mesto, 21,5 km

PR Tour of Slovenia

Photos: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida