Tour of Slovenia: Majka and Pogačar predominate at the finish line of Velika planina
The UAE Team Emirates continued its dominance in the Race around Slovenia, as Rafal Majka and Tadej Pogačar took first and second place on the 4th stage, after they covered 5 km from the finish line on Velika planina.
The superiority of Majka and Pogačar was such that they were able to calm down in the last kilometer and even jokingly imitated the game of ‘stone, paper, scissors’ when deciding how to divide the spoils. In fact, from the moment they progressed, it seemed likely that Pogačar would leave the stage honor to his home Mother while he consolidated the overall leadership, and so it turned out.
Mother and Pogačar came home 22 seconds ahead of Fernando Barcelona (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Alex Tolio (Bardiani-CSF-Faizané) and Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa).
In the overall standings, Pogačar has a three-second advantage over Majka in Sunday’s last stage, while Domen Novak (Bahrain Victorious) is 1:56 behind in third place.
The most demanding stage of the Race in Slovenia took place through Pogačar’s birthplace Komenda, and after the victory last afternoon, another exhibition of the domestic favorite seemed to be here.
Group of nine cyclists – Lionel Taminiaux (Alpecin-Fenix), Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Umberto Marengo (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), Iván Ad P. Mobil), Viktor Potocki (Ljubljana Gusto Šantić) and Francesco Carollo (Mg.K Vis-Color for Peace-VPM) – went in the opening kilometers and created a maximum of four minutes advantage when the UAE Team Emirates set the pace behind.
After the ascent to Črnivec, this lag was reduced to three minutes and Bahrain Victorious took over the reins. Shortly afterwards, Bahrain decided to send Jan Tratnik on the offensive, instead of simply giving Pogačar the lead until the last ascent.
The UAE Team Emirates has found an ally in Eolo-Comet who may have wanted to persuade Lorenzo Fortunato to attack the top of Velika Planina, and their joint efforts reunited the race before the ascent.
After the UAE set the pace on the lower slopes of the Great Mountain, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA took the lead for a short time, with Joel Nicolau pushing forward with 6km to go. This, however, only encouraged Majka and Pogačar to take action, as they soon took over the reins in a less and less leading group.
Majka and Pogačar quickly moved away with the remaining 5 km and quickly increased the advantage to 45 seconds. Pogačar, as if testing himself for the last time before the defense at the Tour de France, took over Majka with a strong turn, which he still has 2.5 km left. Then Pogačar, satisfied with his condition and convinced that they were already irretrievably removed from behind, drove Pogačar alongside Majka towards the finish line. Their work was done.