Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) triumphed on stage 4 of the Tour of Slovenia, accelerating late from an elite lead group to take the stage win on the summit end of Krvavec.
The Basque racer completed three seconds up on Paul Double (Polti-Kometa) and race chief Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-Hansgrohe), with VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè pair Giulio Pellizzari and Domenico Pozzovivo finishing the highest 5 as a part of the identical GC group.
Aleotti retains the GC lead heading into the flat closing stage to Novo Mesto, with the stage 3 winner wanting well-set to take the general title on Sunday.
The battle for the win – and for the GC – started on the ultimate climb of the 147km stage, 9km from the road because the early breakaway was introduced again. Cyril Barthe (Groupama-FDJ) and Johan Meens (Bingoal WB) have been the final males standing from the eight-man early transfer, which at one level had led by 5 minutes on the largely flat run to the ending climb.
On the best way up, VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè and Jayco-AlUla have been placing within the work on the entrance of the peloton, slimming down the group because the 7.7% common gradients bit.
The large transfer got here at 4km from the road as Bilbao led the best way on the entrance as main names together with Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Valerio Conti (Corratec-Vini Fantini) dropped away.
Up entrance, Bilbao was joined by Aleotti, Pozzovivo and Ben Healy (EF Training-EasyPost) as Pellizzari additionally discovered himself in bother, although Healy solely held on to the three.5km mark.
The lead group was again as much as 4 as Double labored his throughout over the next kilometre, with the Briton quickly attempting to go solo on the entrance with out success. A relative slowing up among the many leaders heading into the steep, double-digit gradients of the ultimate kilometre noticed the chase group hone into view, with Pellizzari making a transfer to bridge throughout.
He’d make it again, however simply as he joined his teammate Pozzovivo and the remainder of the stage contenders, Bilbao was pulling the set off on his closing acceleration. At round 200 metres to go, the 34-year-old jumped away, duly taking his first win of the season and seventeenth of his profession.
Heading into the sprinter-friendly closing stage, Aleotti’s GC lead stays at 12 seconds, although with Bilbao now taking on second place from Narváez. Pellizzari is second at 25 seconds, stage on time with teammate Pozzovivo, whereas Steff Cras (TotalEnergies) lies in fifth at 34 seconds.
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