Irish takes first stage, huge crash #video

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Finnish in Kočevje:

14:55, 4 km to the finish: Cyclists arealready in Kočevje, a city that hosts today finish.

14.52, 8 km to the finish: End of today’s breakaway. Krizek is also caught. Now they will get ready for the sprint finish.

14:50, 11.5 km to the finish: Krizek is going all out and has lead of 25 seconds. Can he make it to Kočevje?

14:40, 18 km to the finish: Gap of theleaders has gone down to 35 seconds. It’s just a question of time when willthey be caught.

14:35, 22 km to the finish: Second intermediate finish is behind us, Žiga Jerman from team Rog-Ljubljana again won. Austrian Matthias Krizek had a small accident, he crashed in the middle of Ribnica. He’s also OK and continues the race.

14:30: We’re close to intermediatefinish in Ribnica, last chance for internal battle among breakaway riders. It’snot possible that they would get to Kočevje alone, however their gap is stillone minute.

14:20, 35 km to the finish: Main peloton is not taking chances and is closing in on the leading riders. There are 35 kilometers to the finish line, and the gap has gone down to one minute.

14:15, 40 km to the finish: Finish line in Kočevje is getting closer and closer and the pace of the main group is growing. Lead of the nine riders in the front has fallen under two minutes.

14:05, 45 km to the finish: Escapees are only two minutes ahead of the main group.

14:00: We saw a crash in Nova vas. One of the Orica-Scott and Slovenian national team riders were on the ground, but they both got up and continued the race. Nobody was taken out of the race yet.

Interesting fact: Cyclist had crossedthe highest point of the first stage – 685 meters high Bloška Polica.

Foto: Vid Ponikvar

13:50: Breakaway riders are getting tired and their lead is melting. They are now only two minutes ahead of the main group; there the pace is controlled by team Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia that will bet on Jakub Mareczko.

13:45, 55 km to the finish: Main group is in the chase for nine escaping riders and the gap is going down fast. They are less then three minutes away (2:48).

13:40, 60km to the finish: Lead of the escapees is at around three minutes, teams with candidates for the sprint finish had took the lead in the main peloton.

13:35, 90km: Looks like the main group figured that they don’t have to push as hard and the lead of the breakawayriders has grown again – to 3 min 40 sec.

Breakaway riders:

13:25, 85km: First half of the first stage of 24th Tour of Slovenia is behind us. Lead of the breakaway riders is 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

"Natakarji" v kolesarskem bifeju v Postojni. #PoSloveniji pic.twitter.com/PywROslkXm

— Simon Kavcic (@SimonKavcic) June 15, 2017

13:10: Looks like that group got “alive” as it’s closing to feed zone in Postojna. Lead of the breakaway riders went down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds in just couple of kilometers. We already told you before, and we’ll said it again – it’s very hot and humid day.

13:00: Leaders are still around four minutes ahead of the main group. Gap is going up and down a little bit,depending on the terrain, but the main bunch has everything under control.Cyclists are now near Postojna, where they will have refreshments.

12:55, 68km: Lead of the leading nine riders is down to 3 min 50 sec, but for now the main bunch doesn’t show big activity. There is enough kilometers to go, so there is no rush.

12:50, 60 km: Leading riders, including four Slovenians, have a nice lead ahead of the main peloton. Gap is now at 4.05

12:30, 50km: Lead of the nine breakaway riders is still over four minutes (4:25).

Foto: Vid Ponikvar

12:25: Riders in the breakaway group are: Matthias Krizek (Aut/Tirol Cycling Team), Niccolo Salvietti (Ita/Sangemini), Primož Obal (Slovenia), Tomaš Buchaček (Cz/Elekov-Author Cycling Team), ‪Žiga Jerman (Slo/Rog-Ljubljana), Luca Pacioni (Ita/Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia), Andi Bajc (Slo/Amplatz-BMC), Jon Božič (Slo/Adria Mobil), Nicola Bagioli (Ita/Nippo-Vini Fantini).

12:15: No new developments on the route of the first stage. Breakaway group holds on to the gap they have. Meanwhile Giovanni Visconti (Ita/Bahrain - Merida) had some problems with his bike, but hismechanics took care of it swiftly.

12:00: Escapees are holding on to thelead of four minute, atmosphere in the peloton is relaxed. Cyclists are getting close to Lipica and first intermediate sprint.

11:50, 20km: Breakaway group is still inthe lead, they already have a lead of over 4 minutes.

2nd category mountain finish / Črni Kal (18th km):

11:40: Nine riders escaped shortly after Bertoki and they decided the winners of thefirst mountain finish on Črni Kal

11:30: Group is still together, the pace is also still very high. Peloton is getting close to first mountains finish – on Črni Kal (18th kilometer).

11:20: Pace is brutal inthe beginning of the race, but we expect that everything will calm down whenthe peloton will form in the standard formation – breakaway group and maingroup.

11:15: Riders are trying to escape one behind the other, but for now nobody was successful.Stage is taking place in very hot temperature – 31 degrees Celsius.

Foto: Vid Ponikvar

11:10: We’re at 0 kilometer. Now the race really starts!

11:05: We witnessed a nasty crash right in the beginning of the race. Italian Simone Bernardini (Sangemini) crashed in one of the roundabouts, but he is OK and iscontinuing. Peloton played fair and waited for him.

11:00: Cyclists are on their way on the first stage of Tour of Slovenia. At first theywill ride behind the official vehicle around beautiful Koper, soon it willstart for real!

Start - Koper

 

Zdravljica @tourofsloveniaofficial #anthem #slovenia 🇸🇮 #cycling

A post shared by Jaka Lopatič (@jakalopatic) on Jun 15, 2017 at 2:21am PDT

Vsak cas se bo zacela prva etapa letosnje dirke #PoSloveniji. V zivo na @SiolSPORTAL . pic.twitter.com/P2Ie32eG2j

— Simon Kavcic (@SimonKavcic) June 15, 2017

What do we expect? First stage – with the start on Ukmarsquare in Koper – will be very diverse. We can expect first breakaways on theclimb to Črni Kal, mountain finish of 2nd category.

After that theroute goes to Kočevje, without any bigger climbs.We can expect very fast stage, but the teams will decide howstrongly will they control escapees and how they plan to bring their sprintersto the good position for the sprint in Kočevje.

Whoever wins the stage alsogets the green jersey!It will be interesting to see how Mark Cavendish performs, firsttwo stages should be perfect for him.

British cyclist is a world-class sprinter– he already won 30 stages on Tour de France – but he was seriously ill forbigger part of the season. He chose Tour of Slovenia as his comeback race.