Tour of Slovenia: Colbrelli wins stage 2 sprint

Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) won a rainy second stage of the Tour of Slovenia, beating race leader Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) to the line. Slovenian Grega Bole (Vini Fantini-Nippo) took third on the day from a 35-rider group that separated itself from the rest of the peloton.

A group of four riders went early in the stage, and the responsibility for controlling the group fell to the Orica-GreenEdge team.

"We had a couple guys ride immediately on the front to control," directeur sportif Matt Wilson said. "Jens Mouris and Leigh Howard were the obvious choice. They wouldn't get over the climb in the bunch anyway, so it made sense to use them here."

Unfortunately, Mouris crashed on a technical descent and had to abandon the race, but escaped serious injury.

"There's nothing broken," said Wilson. "He crashed by himself quite hard. He lost a lot of skin and has a lot of lumps and bad bruises."

The cateogry one climb split the peloton, but Matthews made the selection along with Simon Yates. He was at a disadvantage to Bardiani, who had five riders in the group. The Italian team took over control on the finishing circuits for Cobrelli, delivering him to his first individual victory since his debut as a trainee with the team.

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