Machado wins Tour de Slovénie

Image 1 of 2

Cannondale’s Elia Viviani won the fourth and final stage at the Tour de Slovénie in Novo Mesto on Sunday. The Italian out-sprinted Eduard Michael Grosu (Vini-Fantini-Nippo) and Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) from the bunch sprint.

“It was not an easy sprint and I needed an extra bold act to take it,” said Viviani. “The final circuit was not new for me. I remembered my past experiences at Tour de Slovenia, and it was very useful. The final turn at 300 meters to the finish was the key point for the final straight, a slight uphill road with cobbles. Thanks to my teammates, who did great work in the finale to help me, I took the turn in the right position, but to come back I had to pass through a really narrow passage on the right – just a couple of centimeters between the riders and the barrier. I had no other chance, I had to take the risk and it was the right choice.”

NetApp-Endura’s Tiago Machado secured the overall title after moving into the race lead during the third stage on Saturday. He won the race by 23 seconds ahead of Ilnur Zakarin (RusVelo) and 33 seconds ahead of Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli-Yellow Fluo).

"The team made me really proud today,” says Sport Director Christian Pömer. “They confidently defended the yellow jersey and showed to have the race under control at all times. The guys coped very well with the tactical challenge set by a final stage in this sort of situation. If you show any sort of weakness, the attack comes right away, and the guys simply did not give them a chance. They are all well and showed a still increasing form. And of course this puts us in an optimistic mood for the Tour de France.”

Matthews earned the event’s points classification win while Klemen Stimulak (Adria Mobil) won the climber’s competition and Simon Yates (Orica GreenEdge) won the young rider category.

Full Results