Will Slovenia hit back?

After 23 editions of Tour of Slovenia the ratio among victories of Slovenian and foreign riders is 11 : 12. One of the biggest hopes for the new Slovenian victory and a draw is Jan Polanc that will be back on the race after skipping it in 2016. This time he’s back with his new team UAE Team Emirates.

World Tour team UAE Team Emirates is very familiar with Slovenian roads, this is the team formally known as Lampre and has been racing here a lot. Team has new title sponsors now and already took 10 victories in the season and is 14^th on the rankings of the best cycling teams in the world.

Team will arrive with Jan Polanc, a Slovenian rider that exceled on the recently finished Giro d’Italia – he took a stage victory and eleventh place overall. His best result on Tour of Slovenia dates back to 2013 when he was second overall – behind Radoslav Rogina – and when he won the white jersey of the best under 23 rider.

Jan Polanc: “I have nice memories on Tour of Slovenia, it’s a home race and we always see a lot of local fans by the roads. I also have nice memories on the fight for white jersey. The race gave me a chance to show my self and race against professionals, this helped me to get a place in the professional team! I look forward to race again on this race again and I hope that Giro didn’t took too much of my strength for the overall battle.”

Unfortunately the team didn’t register Slovenian rider Marko Kump that would have a good chance to show what he can do – we expect a sprint finish of three out of four stages.

 
UAE Team Emirates:

Jan Polanc, Slovenia

Al-hammadi Yousif Mirza, UAE

Roberto Ferrari, Italy

Andrea Guardini, Italy

Edward Ravasi, Italy

Oliviero Troia, Italy

Federico Zurlo, Italy