Bongiorno victorious in Trije Kralji

Bardiani-CSF’s Francesco Bongiorno earned the stage three summit win at the Tour de Slovénie in Trije Kralji on Saturday. The Italian arrived to the mountaintop finish line with a second to spare ahead of runner-up Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) and an additional six seconds on Linur Zakarin (RusVelo) in third place.

Machado is now leading the overall classification by 23 seconds ahead of Zakarin and 33 seconds ahead of Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo).

 "It was not a chance result, because we knew exactly what to expect. I am not only delighted with Tiago's great performance, but also by the fact that the team completely committed to Tiago as the leader and implemented our tactics 100 per cent," said Christian Pömer, Sport Director of Team NetApp – Endura.

"Today, we wanted to write the script ourselves and isolate as many riders as possible before the final climb. So we went into the penultimate climb with the full team and at full speed. We thereby weakened the direct competitors. Then, Tiago attacked very early during the final climb, so that only two riders were able to follow him. That was crucial to his success."

Bongiorno is leading the climber’s competition, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) is leading the points competition and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) is ahead in the young rider category.

The day’s four-rider breakaway included Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo), Klemen Stimulak (Adria Mobil), Pavel Brutt (Team Katusha) and Edvard Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise). Fedi picked up full points at all of the intermediate sprints and Stimulak secured all of the mountain points with the exception of the points available at the finish line.

The peloton reeled in the escapees and Bongiorno attacked with only Machado and Zakarin on his wheel.

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