Great show in the fifth and final stage of the Tour of Slovenia 2024. At the finish line in Novo Mesto he prevails Ben Healy (Ef Education-EasyPost), who took home a nice partial success, at the end of an extremely hard-fought day of competition. Joy also for Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-hansgrohe), who repelled the many attacks that were made against him during the stage, taking home success in the general classification. Healy completed a series of attacks that he had started when there were about 50 kilometers to go before the finish line, then appearing alone in the main square of the Slovenian city: second place for Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and third for Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).
In terms of general classification, Aleotti arrived in the same group as the two placed and therefore took home the race. They climb onto the final podium with him Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) e Giulio Pellizzari (Vf Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). Also in the top 10 of the final ranking Domenico Pozzovivo (Vf Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), fourth e Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla), eighth.
The story of the race
We start at a ferocious pace, with Clement Davy (Groupama-Fdj), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) e Martin Voltr (Pierre Baguette Cycling), who are the first to move, then causing a split in the group. We continue to push hard until the first flying finish line, where 3″, 2″ and 1″ are up for grabs for the first three: it wins Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), with Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-hansgrohe) who comes in third, behind Phil BauhausBilbao’s teammate, and thus gives up 2″ to his closest rival in the general classification.
At km 40, a small group of 15 runners took the lead: Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma), Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies), Szymon Sajnok (Q36.5), Martin Marcellusi (Vf Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE), Alexander Kristoff (One-X), Alexander Hajek (Bora-hansgrohe), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), the aforementioned Davy, Johan Meens (Bingoal WB), Robin Froidevaux (Tudor), Alessandro de Marchi (Jayco-AlUla), Cameron Wurf (Ineos), Yuhi Todome (Ef Education-EasyPost) e Piotr Pekala (Santic-Wibatech). Their lead reaches more than 3 minutes, but Ineos gets to work and starts to significantly reduce it.
46 km from the finish line Ben Healy (Ef Education-EasyPost) to light the race fuse again. The Irishman attacks and takes it with him Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers). It is therefore up to Aleotti to respond, also because Bilbao tries to take the wheel of the two attackers. The Spaniard desists from the action, which instead manages to Paul Double (Polti-Kometa), who persists together with Healy, while Narváez does not keep up. In the leading group, meanwhile, the fugitives exchanged blows, with De Marchi trying to leave alone and, in doing so, highly selecting his adventure companions. Bilbao still manages to extend in the fast stretch of slight slope that follows the Veliki Ban GPM and moves onto Healy and Double, finding obvious collaboration and putting Aleotti in serious difficulty. To help the Italian, Bora-hansgrohe decided to stop Hajek, who was on the run, and put him to work at the head of what remained of the main group.
At -30 minutes from the finish, around ten riders remained in the lead; at 40″ there are Arndt, who in the meantime has been waiting for his teammate Bilbao, namely Bilbao, Healy, Double, Davy and Meens. The Aleotti group is at 1’05”, with the Italian now supported by two teammates and also finding collaboration with the Ineos Grenadiers. At -20, the surprise, with Bilbao and Double who decide to get up and be caught by the Aleotti group, while Healy insists, taking Davy and Meens with him. At the start of the final loop the 8 remaining in the lead – Kristoff, Pekala, Marcellusi, Sajnok, Grellier, De Marchi, Froidevaux and Laengen, have 25” on Healy, Davy and Meens and just under 1′ on the main group. The trio of pursuers moves ahead of the leaders, forming a small group of 11 pacesetters, with 13 km to go.
On the difficult ramps of the last Gpm Healy raises the pace and leaves everyone behind, except for Marcellusi. Shortly after crossing the hill Narváez takes over the first two, with Bilbao accelerating again, followed by Aleotti. The two move onto the leading trio and all of them are joined shortly afterwards by Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious). At -3 Healy attacks again and opens a gap towards the others, trying to continue straight until the finish line. The Irishman succeeds, while all the other attackers are joined by what remains of the group. Kristoff wins the sprint for second place, while Aleotti can finally breathe: the 2024 Tour of Slovenia belongs to him.
