CYCLING – Edoardo Zambanini put Team Bahrain Victorious on the podium yesterday in the opening stage of the 32nd Tour of Slovenia.
The elite men’s road race, part of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Pro Series for this 2026 season, got underway with a 141.3-kilometre stage from Velenje to Rogaska Slatina.
The leg looked on paper to be a day suited for the fast men, but the race was turned on its head by Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe in the final 30km as the pace increased and the peloton split apart.
Zambanini responded well to remain in the front group and was rewarded with third place in the sprint, finishing behind winner Laurence Pithie and runner-up Arne Marit, both of Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe.
“I was feeling good throughout the race,” said Zambanini.
“The race exploded over the last 30km with the Bora riders.”
“Today’s strategy was to sprint with Alberto (Bruttomesso). Then we were left with a small group at the front, so we decided to go for the sprint with me.”
“With 300m to go, I was in a good position, but then I almost crashed because I moved to the left and the riders in front also moved to the left. I had to brake hard and then restart my sprint, which cost me a lot of speed.
“But in the end, it was okay. I was feeling good and I am satisfied with the result. For the first day, we are happy.”
Bahrain Victorious’ Max van der Meulen narrowly missed out on the top 10 by placing 13th in the stage, also as part of the lead group in the concluding bunch sprint.
Jakob Omrzel was 25th, Roman Erkamov finished 29th, Fran Miholjevic ranked 41st, and Bruttomesso was 53rd.
Oliver Stockwell rounded out the team’s riders in 68th.
With yesterday’s results, Zambanini was fourth on the general classification and third in the points rankings, while van der Meulen stood second in the best young rider standings just four seconds behind leader Tomas Pridal of Team United Shipping.
Bahrain Victorious sports director Borut Bozic commented: “Our plan was to sprint today with Alberto. We knew that Bora had a strong team and that the final wasn’t so easy. We were also prepared for the possibility that they could make a selection at the end of the race, but we were happy that we still had a good number of riders in the front group of around 40 riders.
“Zambanini did everything exactly as we asked him to do. In recent weeks, he has been very strong, especially in this type of bunch sprint finish. He did his job well.
“He could perhaps have sprinted a little differently after being boxed in with around 300m to go, but we are happy with his result and with the performance of the whole team.”
The five-stage race, which continues until Sunday and covers a total of 810.7km, continues with today’s second leg of 181.8km.
Meanwhile, in the 89th Tour de Suisse yesterday which kicked off in Italy, Bahrain Victorious star Lenny Martinez was the team’s best finisher in 39th at the end of the 144km first stage.
The five-stage race, which also continues until Sunday, is part of this season’s UCI World Tour.
Stage two today is set to cover 157.7km from the total race distance of 633.5km.
&uuid=(email))