A courageous attack that was rewarded with victory – in the final of today's third stage of the Tour of Slovenia from Ljubljana to Nova Gorica, BORA - hansgrohe rider Giovanni Aleotti put on a spectacular show.
After keeping up with the best on the final climb, the 25-year-old Italian broke away from the group of favourites on the final descent and celebrated an impressive solo victory. After 160.5 kilometres, Aleotti won with an eleven-second lead over Jhonatan Narváez (Ecuador) and Jordan Jegat (France). The freshly crowned stage winner also took the lead in the overall standings and will tackle tomorrow's queen stage of the Tour of Slovenia in the green jersey of the overall leader.
From the finish line
“The last few kilometres were really tough. This is a special victory for me, as I had to overcome several setbacks last year. Now I’m really happy to be back on the road to success. I want to take this opportunity to thank my teammates, who helped me a lot today. We really have a great spirit in the team. Now we will enjoy the victory, but tomorrow we will do our best to defend the leader's jersey.” – Giovanni Aleotti
“We are very happy for Giovanni, this is really a huge success for him. Alexander Hajek was already riding in the jersey of the best young rider today, and now Giovanni has taken the overall lead – accordingly, we can be very happy with our performance here at the Tour of Slovenia so far. However, the hardest stage is still to come tomorrow. We have already inspected the long final climb and know that we have a tough challenge ahead of us.” – Bernhard Eisel, Sports Director
Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency