Polish cyclists had justified the role of a favorite, great performance by Pogačar! #video

• All about Tour of Slovenia

 15:07, 2km to the finish: Polish cyclists has attacked again, only Haig could follow.

15:00, 4km to the finish: Italian, Australian and Polish cyclists are in the battle for victory. Pogačar is aiming for top-5 result.

14:55, 5km to the finish: Tactical battle continues. Italian cyclists Visconti has caught up with Majka and Haif. Just couple of meters behind them is Pogačar. Young Slovenian rider is having an amazing day.

14.55, 6.5km to the finish: Only two riders are left in the lead. Majka and Haig! Visconti is following with a small gap.

14:50, 10km to the finish: Polish cyclists Rafal Majka (Bora - Hansgrohe) has attacked, Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain - Merida) and Jack Haig (Orica -Scott) are only two that follow.

14:44: It’s over. Luka Mezgec has backed down and the green jersey will get a newowner.

14:42,12.5km to the finish: Luka Mezgec is leading the main group and pedaling hard towards top of Rogla.

14:38: Luka Mezgec, leader of the race, is still with the fastest riders on today’sstage. He’s more a sprinter than a climber.

14:35: Escapees were caught just before the start of the climb to Rogla. Battle forvictory has begun.

14:25, 21km to the finish: We’re ahead of the last climb to Rogla. Leading five riders are still in the lead. After Mugerli’s attack they are now 25 seconds ahead.

14:15: Main group already has leaders in sight, they will be caught soon. Everything is ready for 1st category climb to Rogla.

Polanc,daj gas cez strm klanc, je napis za @PolancJan ob zakljucnem vzponu na Roglo @TourOfSlovenia pic.twitter.com/9vhrozzrlF

— JakaLopatic (@Jaka_Lopatic) June 17, 2017

14:00,35km to the finish: Leading trio will be caught soon. They are just 20 seconds away from the main group with the all favorites.

13:55, 40 km to the finish: Second mountain finish is behind the cyclists on the race. Leading trio has just over a minute and a half gap.

13:48: Only three riders had left in the lead, including Žiga Grošelj (Adria MobilCycling). They are one minute ahead of main group.

13:42, 46km to the finish: Lead of the escape group has gone down to two minutes. They are already on the climb to Veliko Tinje.

13:37: Another DNF. Croatian cyclists David Jabuka (Meridiana Kamen) has left the race.

13:35, 113km: Main group is keeping about three minute gap to the breakaway group andis showing that everything is under control.

13:30,108km: Gap between leaders and main group has increased. It’s now at 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Another rider is out of the race, “broom” has caught Sangemini rider Paolo Toto.

Glavnina lovi ubeznike. Kaj to sibajo po klancu navzdol @TourOfSlovenia pic.twitter.com/lLFEB7iviF

— JakaLopatic (@Jaka_Lopatic) June 17, 2017

13:15, 95km: Two more riders had left the race. Roger Kluge (Ger, Orica-Scott) went to the team car. Florian Gaugl(At, Hrinkow Advarics) wasn’t to lucky, he had a nasty crash and is going with the ambulance to the hospital for the check-out.

13:15: Leading six riders managed to save gap of two minutes on the descent to Zreče.

13:00: Main group is stretched out. Climb to Padeški Vrh is very serious, but the main favorites do

12:55,85km: Lead of the escape group is shrinking with each kilometer. Six riders are now only three minutes. Simone Bernardini (Sangemini) has meanwhile left therace.

12:40: Climb to Padeški Vrh (954 m) has begun. Climb is 7,1 km long, with averageincline of 6,7%. 

Ubezniki pred prihodom v Zrece s prednostjo slabih 6 minut @TourOfSlovenia pic.twitter.com/FtIOFdfx70

— JakaLopatic (@Jaka_Lopatic) June 17, 2017

12:35, 78km: Cyclists are getting close to first climb of the day – Padeški Vrh. Gap between the leading riders and main group has meanwhile fallen down to 5 minutes and 50 seconds.

Te ljudi že poznamo. Kolesarski bife je danes v Stranicah. pic.twitter.com/Qh85nhOvV3

— Simon Kavcic (@SimonKavcic) June 17, 2017

12:15,70km: Breakaway group has lead of 6 minutes and 30 seconds as they pass the feed zone.

12:10: Everything is calm on the stage. Pace of the main group has gone down, lead of escapees is growing and is now at 7 minutes.

11:55, 55km: Lead of the escape group has grown to 6 minutes.

Ubežna skupinica na tretji etapi @TourOfSlovenia. pic.twitter.com/Ba3vNATind

— Simon Kavcic (@SimonKavcic) June 17, 2017

11:50: Escapees are pulling away from the main group, the gap is now at five minutes.

 11:50: Another update on the train “incident” – there was no incident. We got latest report that says that breakaway riders crossed the track before the train arrived. Before the group arrive the train already left… Great luck for the organizers.

11:40, 42km: Six escaping riders are now three minutes ahead of the main group.

11:35: Update from the race. Looks like the complication with the railroad crossing wasn’t as complicated as we thought. Train stopped escapees for couple of seconds, but they are now 3 minutes ahead after all. Without that train the gap would be even bigger… Yes, we have first breakaway!

11:25: Unfortunate accident happened in Štore (we’ll also have intermediate sprint there). Six riders managed to escape and they got a lead of 25 seconds, but they were stopped on the railway crossing due to the passing train. Escapees were of course angry. Looks like breakaway riders don’t have a lot of luck today.

Kot ose so sli kolesarji mimo @TourOfSlovenia #celje #rogla pic.twitter.com/utConFoZDu

— JakaLopatic (@Jaka_Lopatic) June 17, 2017

11:15: Unlike in the first two stages peloton has a very high pace and doesn’t let any escape. Teams that are aiming for overall victory are controlling this decisivestage.

11:00,18km: Nothing new happened on the race. Pace is still extraordinary and because of that nobody can escape. Josef Černy (CZ/Elekov-Author Cycling Team) and Bernhard Eisel (Aut/Team Dimension Data) were close to breakaway, but they only managed to create a gap of 10 seconds.

10:55,10km: Group is still together, for no there was no successful breakaway.

10:50: First battle for points classification was already on 6th kilometer. Italian Sonny Colbrelli was fastest on the intermediate finish in Žalec.

10:45: Pace is very high right from the start, this is why peloton is stretched out quite a big. For now nobody managed to escape.

10:40: The race is ON! Cyclists are riding with nice temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. We saw first attacks right from the start, we expect first successful breakaway soon.

13:35: 143 riders are on the start of third stage.

Pa so sli iz Celja na pot kraljevske etape @TourOfSlovenia. Cilj na Rogli #fightforgreen #PoSloveniji pic.twitter.com/kHMtTkqEBr

— JakaLopatic (@Jaka_Lopatic) June 17, 2017

10:30: Start of the race, for now behind the official vehicle. Thing will get serious after couple of kilometers.

Start - Celje

What’s ahead of us? We can expect attacks during the stage and fight for blue jersey – jersey of the best KOM rider. We’ll have two mountain finished during the day, Padeški vrh on 90th kilometer and Veliko Tinje 30 kilometers later. For the end we have 14 kilometers of climb to Rogla – climb with the average incline of 7,5 degrees.

It’s hard to say who has best chances, there are quite a lot of favorites. Slovenian fans have high hopes on Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), here is also Domen Novak (Bahrain-Merida). Team Adria Mobil Cycling expects the most from the Croatian Radoslav Rogina.

Polish cyclist Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) is getting ready for Tour and is very dangerous, we could also see an attack from Australian Jack Haig (Orica-Scott). These are of course not all names, climb is the same for everybody and the victory will go to the cyclists with strongest legs. Maybe we’ll see a surprise.