After the impressive start to Canyon dhb SunGod’s participation in the UCI 2.Pro Tour of Slovenia which you can read about here, the team moved on to Žalec for the start of Stage 2.

10. Stage 2 Profile

Another relatively short Stage 2 featured two challenging Category 2 climbs both around 5km in length at an average incline of 7% and a 2km ‘sting in the tail’ at an even steeper 10%.

11. Stage 2 Peloton

It was Rob Scott that this time made the 8-man breakaway which also included Dan Bigham (Ribble Weldtite). Rob illustrated his determination by taking a hard-earned 2^nd place in the first KOM contest at Lipa. He continued to battle on and also secured second place at the intermediate sprint after 110km at Sentjur.

12. Rob Scott in the break

A few kilometres out from the second climb at Svetina, Bahrain-Victorius and Uno-X picked up the pace considerably catching the breakaway with 28km to go and by the time they reached the foot of the climb the peloton was fracturing into many pieces.

13. Rob Scott caught

With their extensive climbing credentials, UAE-Team Emirates then took up the cudgel as the early slopes steepened clearly setting up Pogacar for a tilt at the stage. By the top of the climb Pogacar had established a one minute lead over the rest of the chasers which he then stretched to 1min 22sec by the finish. Ex-World Tour rider James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite) reminded people of his capabilities by keeping in touch in the chasing group and finishing in 6^th place. Stedman, getting over a post-Tour of Mirabelle cold, was Canyon dhb SunGod’s first finisher in 28^th place, 3min 41sec down which left him in 21^st place on GC. Christensen was the next team finisher in 42^nd place, 7min and 3sec down.

14. Stedman on the Lipa climb

Breakaway rider Rob Scott commented:

‘I was second on the first KOM to Kenny Molly (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) but we got caught right at the bottom of the second KOM by Bahrain Victorius and Uno X just as it started raining as well. That was a good day out to get some KOM points on the board.’  

28^th place finisher Stedman tweeted:

‘Emptied… First big shake down in the @TourOfSlovenia! Ruddy hard last 30km, rolled in the 3rd group on the road, sat just outside of the top 20 on GC. Looking forward to the next few days! Legs can only get better.’

Stage 3

15. Stage 3 Profile

The longer 166km Stage 3 contained three categorised climbs of 4-5km each with a steepness between 4-6%. However, there were also a series of non-categorised climbs making the parcours significantly more challenging than it might have appeared at first look.

16. Matt Bostock awaiting the start of Stage 3

Rob Scott made an initial break of 11 riders but this dangerous looking break was brought back into the peloton which almost immediately sparked a second break of seven riders, this time containing Jacob Scott. To their credit, the Canyon dhb SunGod team had not missed a meaningful break yet.

Jacob was first over the climb at Drensko Rebro after 43km then 5km further on took 3^rd place and one bonus second at the intermediate sprint at Kozje. At this point Jacob stood in 2^nd place on the overall KOM standings just a single point behind Pogacar and it looked as though he might lift the blue KOM leader’s jersey by the end of the stage. However, it was not to be as unusually the peloton brought back the breakaway with 90km of the stage still remaining.

17 & 18. Jacob Scott in the Stage 3 breakaway

The next climb at Studenec with 74km to go sparked yet another breakaway, this time just 5 riders strong. Bahrain-Victorius controlled the gap to this latest breakaway until 34km to go when approaching the last categorised climb of the day at Sremic, Townsend, Christensen and Bostock hit the front of the peloton to contribute to the pace of the chase.

19. Christensen covers the front of the peloton as the break is about to be caught

Uno-X then continued the high pace onto the final categorised climb helping catch the breakaway and shredding the peloton. There were only 12 riders in the first group as it crested the KOM point with 20km to go. Stedman and Christensen were in the fractured second group and while Stedman managed to regain the lead group on the following uncategorised climb with 14km to go swelling the lead group to 33 riders, Christensen came to grief as he describes further below.

By the finish the lead group had opened up a gap of over 2 minutes on the first chase group with Stedman fighting into 13^th on the stage in the same time as the winner Jon Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and moving up to 19^th place on GC. Bostock was the next Canyon dhb SunGod rider home finishing with the 3^rd group in 48^th place 3min 38sec down.

Christensen bravely remounted to finish ten minutes down on the stage.

20. Stage 3 finish

13^th place finisher Stedman commented:

(When Townsend, Bostock and Christensen hit the front just before the final climb) ‘I was too far back admittedly, they were really well positioned but for that race I was just all over the shop. Ryan climbed well, he was only 15 seconds off the back of my group when we crested the top and then he got wiped on the descent. Then I got on (to the lead group) as UAE were semi-waiting for Trentin.

(Coming into the sprint) There was just a gap of clean air and I was thinking I might as well just launch it and then looked up and there was 250 metres to go…please oh!’

Stedman also tweeted: ‘Gave it a whack in the reduced sprint! Went just a little bit too early but couldn’t have done much more! Tough old finish. Time for us to prepare for the dirty steep bergs of the queen stage lined up tomorrow.’

Faller Christensen added:

‘Stage 3 was an interesting one. We didn’t expect it to go so fast up the final climb and the plan changed on the climb. Max and I were in a chase group over the top but unfortunately on the descent the guy in front of me got the corner wrong and came down. I had nowhere to go but bail out and straight line it at 80km/h. Lucky to walk away with a few scratches on the back and no doubt a lot of bruising. Left me wondering what I could have done in the reduced bunch sprint.’

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Written by Paul and Marina Stedman with rider contributions by Ryan Christensen, Max Stedman and Rob Scott.

Photo/Diagram Credits

10. Tour of Slovenia Official Website Tour of Slovenia
11. Sportida Photo Agency
12. Mario Stiehl @PhotoGomezSport
13. Eurosport GCN
14. Andrej Petelinsek @andrejpet
15. Tour of Slovenia Official Website Tour of Slovenia
16. Jan Grilc @JanGrilc
17. Mario Stiehl @PhotoGomezSport
18. Sportida Photo Agency
19. Sportida Photo Agency
20. Sportida Photo Agency