Success for Pello Bilbao in the fourth stage of Tour of Slovenia 2024. The Spanish of Bahrain Victorious he imposed himself on the finish line of Krvavecat the end of the long and demanding final ascent, breaking away in the last hundred metres Paul Double (Team Polti-Kometa) e Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-hansgrohe), arrived at the finish line with a delay of 3″ together with Giulio Pellizzari it’s at Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), fourth and fifth of the day. The 25-year-old from Emilia therefore manages to keep the leader’s jersey and tomorrow, in the last stage, he will have to defend a 12″ lead over Bilbao and 25″ over Pellizzari and Pozzovivo, while Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla) slipped to eighth place overall with a delay of 45″.
The video of the arrival
The story of the race
The day’s breakaway begins in the first kilometers after the start: they go on the attack Cyril Barthe (Groupama-FDJ), Johan Meens (Bingoal WB), Marcel Camprubi (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Barnabás Peak (Adria Mobil), Michał Paluta (Santic-Wibatech), Tomáš Kalojíros (Pierre Baguette Cycling) e Mihael Štajnar (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), to which he managed to return shortly afterwards Davide Baldaccini (Corratec-Vini Fantini). The group lets it happen, even if it always keeps the group of pacesetters at a limited distance, around three minutes.
The situation remains stable for a good part of the stage, with the fugitives sharing the various intermediate finishes and Baldaccini strengthening his leadership in the climbers’ classification by going second at the first GPM and conquering the next two. Just after the latter, entering the last 70 kilometers of the race, the gap between the eight in command grows again and reaches 4’30”, but the work of EF Education-EasyPost, Bora hansgrohe And Bahrain Victorious he reduces the gap to under 2′ at -20 minutes from the end, when the road already begins to climb before the official start of the final ascent.
At the front, Baldaccini, Kalojíros and Štajnar immediately lose contact, and shortly afterwards Peák and Camprubi also break away, but manage to get back onto Paluta, Barthe and Meens. Peák breaks away again shortly afterwards and definitively, soon being caught up by a platoon increasingly closer to the head of the race, and with the start of the final GPM of Krvavec Paluta also raises the white flag. The comeback of the pursuers is inexorable and the other fugitives are also reabsorbed one after the other, with Meens last to give up 9400 meters from the finish.
In a group in which there are about fifty runners left, it is Alessandro Tonelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) to raise the pace, then giving way to Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco AlUla), which further skims the platoon. However, the decisive change of pace is imposed by Bahrain Victorious with Edoardo Zambaniniwhich prepares the extension of Pello Bilbao. The Spaniard’s progression is one that wears out his opponents one by one with the exception of the leader Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-hansgrohe) and of the eternal Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè).
Bilbao tries to ask for collaboration but doesn’t receive much of it, and from behind some riders who hadn’t been able to follow the Spaniard’s pace manage to get closer. One of them is Paul Double (Team Polti-Kometa), who when the slopes become less demanding manages to recover and rejoin the leading trio two kilometers from the finish line. Shortly after, Bilbao tries a new acceleration but is unable to make a difference, therefore, having entered the last kilometer after a practically downhill stretch of road, the four in the lead face the last tough ramps towards the finish together.
Thanks to the work of Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), however, the pursuers manage to get very close again, and at that point Double tries everything and attacks. Only Bilbao manages to follow the Briton, while Aleotti and Pozzovivo initially pay for the acceleration and choose to go up at their own pace, managing to catch up with the other two 250 meters from the end. From behind, meanwhile, Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) climbs at double speed and manages to catch up just before the last 100 metres, but at that point Bilbao accelerates, breaks away from everyone and goes on to win the stage success, without however being able to make that difference necessary to also take the symbol of primacy given that Aleotti finishes third at 3″, just behind Double.
