VIDEO: Slovenians without trophies, Felline smiling in Višnja Gora

17.00: Patrik Sinkewitz (Germany), one of the favourites for the general classification, won an enormous lead in the descent after the mountain finish, but, unluckily, fell before the finish line. We are still waiting for the winner to be decided by photo finish.

16.44: The Adria team from Novo Mesto still dictates the tempo in the peleton. The caravan now approaches the third category climb to Vrh (elevation of 672 m).

16.34: Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) won the Polževo mountain finish, the second and the third place went to Adria riders Klemen Štimulak and Radoslav Rogina. The Adria team now dictates the tempo in the peleton. Only 20 km to the finish line.

16.25: Exactly 25 kilometres to the Tour of Slovenia second stage finish.

16.23: The group in the front is bigger than it at first appeared. It consists of approximately 30 riders, but they are not far ahead of the peleton.

16.16: As soon as the heroes of today's stage were caught, a new breakaway happened. A group of approximately 20 riders formed in the front and they are trying to get as far ahead as possible.

16.10: The breakaways were caught, the brave Italian and Columbian are now part of the peleton. Everything begins anew. The caravan will begin the climb to Polževo together and we are in for an extremely interesting 30-kilometre-finish.

16.05: The more exciting part of the race approaches, soon the riders will climb Polževo for the next mountain finish—3rd category climb. The breakaways are still approximately 1 minute ahead of the peleton.

15.35: Parrinello won the intermediate sprint in front of the Columbian. The peloton is less than 1 minute behind the leading duo.

15.25: The breakaways are past the 107 km mark and only 1 minute ahead of the peloton. A car-motorcycle accident occurred in the meanwhile. A careless driver didn't follow the police and event organizer instructions and drove on the closed road. A security officer on a motorcycle crashed into him, suffered injuries and was taken to hospital. It isn't yet clear how severe the injuries are. We of course hope that he will be okay and call on all the drivers to strictly follow the police and event organizer instructions. This way, such accidents won't happen again!

15.11, 96 km: A buffet was set up at the 96 km mark in Stari Log; the riders can get fresh water and other refreshments before continuing the race. Usually, the “water carriers” from different teams take them. Here, we received information on the difference between the breakaways and the peloton. The peloton decreased the lead for 1 minute (now 3 min 30 s).

15.10: No differences at the race. The breakaways are holding their lead of 4 min 30 s and are not holding back.

14.54: Ubežnika sta prečkala leteči cilj v Kočevju in že hitita proti Žužemberku. Njuna prednost pred glavnino je 4 minute in 30 sekund.

14.40: Dalivier Ospina was better of the leading duo in the individual time trial in the first stage. He finished 1 min 3 s behind Svein Tuft (Canada). Antonio Parrinelo was 6 seconds slower than the Columbian.

14.30, 70 km: The leading duo is racing to Kočevje. They achieved the speed between 70 and 80 km/h during the descent.

14.15: Osipina won the mountain finish and received 12 points; with that, he most likely secured the dark blue jersey for the best rider in overall mountain finishes.

14.10: The breakaways reached the Strma Reber top and are descending to Kočevje. The latest measurements say they are 3 min 30 s ahead of the peloton.

14.04: The leading duo just got over the 850 m elevation mark, but their lead decreased a little. The Vini Fantini team reduced their lead from almost 6 minutes to 4 min 20 s.

13.56: The breakaways are on the hairpin bends, they still have 16 to go. They are fighting the 14% slope successfully in the heat, they are at an elevation of 650 m. The tempo in the peloton is dictated by the Italian team Vini Fantini.

13.50: The breakaways' lead is getting bigger even on the slope. They are already 5 min 40 s ahead, even though they both called for technical support. The Columbian had some technical difficulties with his bicycle, but the support team fixed them quickly. The Italian got a fresh drink and something to eat. The steepest part is still in front of them.

13.45: The second breakaway driver Dalivier Ospina is 27 years old. He raced on Giro d'Italia this year and was out in the 12th stage. He never won a categorised UCI race. He raced on La Flèche Wallonne this year and finished 49th.

13.45: Antonino Parrinelo is 24 years old. He has been a member of an Italian team Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela for two seasons. He raced on the Tour of Estonia (finished 44th) and on the one-day race GP Kanton Aargau (finished 83rd) before racing on the Tour of Slovenia.

13.43 Ospina and Parrinello have already begun the 1st category 8-kilometre-climb with an elevation gain of 700 m. The peloton will start the climb 4 min 30 s after the breakaways.

13.37: The breakaway riders increased their lead to 4 min 30 s. They will begin the first climb to Strma Reber. The peloton tempo decreased vividly.

13.25: The breakaway drivers increase the lead, they are now 1 min 20 s ahead.

13.17, 32 km: Dalivier Ospina (Colombia) and Antonino Parrinello (Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela) broke away from the peleton. They are 55 seconds ahead.

13.05 - The breakaway fell through. The peloton caught up with the breakaway riders on the 25 km mark.

12.55 - Fourteen riders managed to break away from the peloton at the 15 km mark. They are 20 seconds ahead.

12.43 - The first attempt to break away have begun, but no one succeeded so far. All the riders are continuing together and their speed is high—they are quite stretched.

12.38 - The riders left Kočevje, the second stage officially begins!

12.30 - The caravan started with the second stage of the 20th Tour of Slovenia. They started packed together, but the race should really begin in about ten minutes.

12.05 - What did Matej Mugerli (Adria Mobil) say before the 2nd stage? "The stage could be perfectly suited for me, but we will have to work for our favourites in the general classification. We will have to control breakaways, there will certainly be a lot of those."

This stage will be extremely difficult, nerve-racking and important. There will be three intermediate sprints and three categorised mountain finishes. In this stage, the riders will have to defeat a more than 8 km long 1st category climb to Strma Reber. After that, they will descent back to Kočevje, where they will finish the first half of the second stage. The riders will then take the route past Žužemberk to Višnja Gora. Before Višnja Gora, the riders will have to climp Polževo from Muljava. The climb is 6 km long and categorised as 3rd category climb. After that, the riders will descent to Višnja Gora and pass the finishing line for the first time. They will run a 15-kilometre-circuit in vicinity of Višnja Gora. After a 5-kilometre-climb to Vrh, the riders will have only 10.5 km to go. The route is challenging, diverse and full of turns. The winner will definitely not be determined in the final peleton sprint.

The winner of the first stage, Canadian Svein Tuft (GreenEdge), will be wearing the yellow jersey, but it's hard to believe that he will be able to keep it after the second stage.