CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious star Phil Bauhaus secured third place yesterday behind winner Dylan Groenewegen of Jayco AlUla and runner-up Juan Sebastian Molano of UAE Team Emirates-XRG in stage three of this year’s Tour of Slovenia.
The peloton covered 172 kilometres, starting in Majsperk in Styria and finishing in Ormoz on the Croatian border, with part of the route briefly crossing into Croatia.
Early in the stage, a breakaway of six riders established a gap of over four minutes. Around 50 kilometres from the finish, one of the escapees crashed, and the group began to lose time.
Four riders remained, including two young Slovenians, with Nejc Komac of Factor Racing eventually going solo and holding on the longest. The 21-year-old put up a strong fight, but the peloton reeled him in just four kilometres from the finish.
Bahrain Victorious was consistently active at the front, working alongside Lidl-Trek and Jayco AlUla to set up the expected sprint finish.
Bauhaus commented on his third-place result: “Today, we rode well as a team, with a big improvement compared to the first stage. I’m really happy with the effort everyone put in.
“I was in a perfect position behind the Jayco AlUla lead-out. Unfortunately, just before the uphill section of the finale, my chain dropped, and I had to focus on getting it back on. I lost both my position and the speed, and from that point, the fight for the win was over for me.
“In the end, third place was the best I could manage today.”
His Bahrain Victorious teammate Jakob Omrzel continues to lead the white jersey classification after successfully defending it yesterday despite placing 58th in the stage. Omrzel said: “Even the wind was strong today, this stage was much easier than the previous two.
“We rode from the beginning at an easier tempo, but the last 30 kilometres we went at a hard tempo and the wind was once from behind, from aside, and in front. I kept the white jersey and I am satisfied with today’s racing.”
Today’s stage is the Queen Stage. It starts in Maribor and finishes atop Golte, with the riders facing the Podvolovljek climb (5.1km at 8.4 per cent) before tackling the demanding final ascent to Golte (13.8km at 7.4 pc).
The five-stage race is an elite men’s road event on the 2025 UCI ProSeries.
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