Winner in Novo mesto Viviani, overall winner Machado

The winner in the overall classification of the 21st Tour of Slovenia is Tiago Machado from Portugal, member of the NetApp Endura team. Kristijan Koren, the Cannondale team member, was the best from the Slovenian riders – he took fourth place. Klemen Štimulak took the first place in the overall mountain finish classification – he won five mountain finishes of the last six in the last two stages – and won the blue jersey.

15:40, 145 km: The riders started the last 8-kilometre lap in a close pack. In a few minutes, we will see an extremely interesting sprint that will give us the winner of the last stage of the 21st Tour of Slovenia.

15:30, 140 km: The peleton caught up with the two breakaway riders, the sprinters are already thinking about the final sprint of the stage.

15.20: After three hours, the average speed of the riders is 44 km/h. The two breakaway riders are only 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.

15:10, 121 km: The riders past through Glavni Trg in Novo Mesto for the first time. They will do the same three times more. The leading riders are still 2 minutes ahead of the peloton.

14.55, 115 km: Pieter Jacobs and Pavel Kočetkov stay in the lead, Slovenian breakaway trio (Štimulak, Roglič, and Logar) are waiting for the peloton. The leading duo is 2 minutes ahead of the peloton. The riders have reached Novo Mesto.

14:45: The peloton with the yellow jersey is more efficient in racing against the wind on open road than the breakaway riders. The Netapp team does not want to leave anything to chance, its member Machado must defend the yellow jersey. The breakaway riders' lead is decreasing.

14:40, 105 km: The peloton sped up a bit and decreased the lead to 1 minute 50 seconds. No other major developments on this stage, which will be decided by the final sprint.

14:30, 95 km: The average speed after two hours of racing is 44 km/h. The breakaway riders are maintaining their lead of 2 minutes 30 seconds. The Netapp, Orica, and RusVela teams are dictating the pace in the peloton.

14:25, 87 km: There have been no major developments in the stage, the five breakaway riders are stil 2 minutes 40 seconds ahead of the peloton. The riders are stocking up on refreshments at the buffet. The next destination is Novo Mesto with two intermediate sprints and the finish of the stage.

14:10, 76 km: Klemen Štimulak won the Bogenšperk mountain finish, confirmed his victory in the mountain finish classification and won the blue jersey. Now he only has to finish the stage.

The five breakaway riders are still 2 minutes 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Fun fact: Štimulak has already won the blue jersey because his opponents (Zakarin, Bongiorno, and Villella) are not among the breakaway riders, but he has to finish the stage. We can expect that he will slow down and wait for the peloton after the climb to Bogenšperk. This way, he can save some strength to help Mugerli in the final sprint in Novo Mesto.

13:55, 72 km: The five breakaway riders are already climbing towards Bogenšperk, the last mountain finish on this year's race. They are now 1 minute 20 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey. The Netapp and Orica-GreenEdge teams are dictating the pace in the peloton.

13:40, 64 km: The five breakaway riders increased their lead in the crazy descent to Spodnji Hotič. They are now 1 minute 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.

13:25, 53 km: The Adria Mobil riders have caught up with the other three breakaway riders. They are only 1 minute 25 seconds ahead of the peloton.

13:20: Only three riders in the leading pack. Roglič slowed down and waited for Štimulak from the same team; together, they are chasing the three breakaway riders. They are 2 minutes 40 seconds ahead of the peloton.

13:15: The reporters from the track have informed us that Klemen Štimulak is not in the pack of the four leading riders. They are 40 seconds ahead of him, while Klemen is 20 seconds ahead of the peloton with the yellow jersey.

13:10: It seems that we have finally the first succesful brekaway. The pack of breakaway riders consists of Pavel Kochetkov, Tadej Logar, Pietar Jacobs, Primož Roglič, and Klemen Štimulak. The group with three Slovenians is 50 seconds ahead of the peloton that did not react to their breakaway.

13:00, 35 km: Nothing shocking happened in the first 35 kilometres of the last stage. The pace is very fast and the riders in the peloton keep together.

12:55: The riders are approaching the first intermediate sprint in Domžale at the 32.3-kilometre mark of today's stage.

12:50: The timekeepers who measure how much the peloton is behind the breakaway riders greet every breakaway attempt, but are always disappointed. The Netapp team dictates a remarkable pace.

12:45: The Netapp Endura team with the yellow jersey is preventing all breakaway attempts with a fast pace. They obviously do not want to leave anything to chance.

12:40, 15 km: There have been several breakaway attempts, but the peloton prevented all of them. The most successful was Markus Eibegger, Austria, who broke away to 100 metres.

12:30: Nothing new in the race. The peloton is staying together, but eventually, someone will manage to break away. Maybe Klemen Špilak, yesterday's hero with high goals in the fight for the blue jersey, will be the first breakaway rider.

12:25: From the very start of the stage, there have been breakaway attempts. The peloton is very long, but so far, none of the riders has broken away. There will be two 3rd category mountain finishes and three intermediate sprints in this interesting stage that will finish in Novo Mesto.

12:20: After riding in closed formation for five minutes, the riders passed the 0-kilometre mark. With that, the last stage of the 21st Tour of Slovenia officially started.

12:15: The riders started the 153-kilometre stage. Davide Villella, Angelo Pagini, and Antonio Santoro, all from Italy, did not start the stage.

Klemen Štimulak, Adria Mobil rider, shared his thoughts with us before the last stage of the 21st Tour of Slovenia: "Today, we can expect a final sprint. In our team, Mugerli will be the one who will reach for the highest places."

Before the last stage, Borut Božič said, "We will see how it goes. We have aces in Slovenian team as well. Aldo Ino Ilešič and me will try to reach for the highest places."

Tiago Machado with the yellow jersey: "I believe that my team will help me and that we will defend the yellow jersey. But the race is not over yet. For me, the race is over only when I pass the finish line of the last stage."

We are waiting for the last, 153-kilometre stage that will finish in Novo Mesto. This stage will give us the winner of the 120th stage in the history of the Tour. This year's race is with 514.5 kilometres the shortest in the 21 years of history. This time, the NetApp-Endura riders have a pleasant job – they will be defending the lead that Machado has in front of the competitors. There are no deductible seconds on the intermediate and mountain finishes, which means that the Portugal rider, who is 23 seconds ahead of the rider in the second place, is practically the winner of the race. If he finishes the race together with the peloton today, he will be celebrating the first overall classification victory in his career.

Štimulak fighting for blue jersey

Five riders (Bongiorno, Villella, Štimulak, Machado, and Zakarin) have 12 points. There will be two 3rd category mountain finishes in this stage where the riders will be able to achieve 3, 2, and 1 point. We can only hope that Štimulak will finish ahead of the competition and with that, the only Slovenian on the podium area, wearing the blue jersey. Machado will wear the yellow jersey, Matthews the red jersey, and Simon Yates the white jersey.

The stage will start in Škofja Loka at 12:15, the first riders should pass the finish line on Glavni Trg in Novo mesto around 3 pm for the first time. After that, they will race 5 laps on the streets of Novo Mesto before the stage finishes around 4 pm.