CRO Race: Uno-X Mobility win again on queen stage 3 as Tobias Svarre vaults into race lead

Tobias Svarre made it two wins in two days for Uno-X Mobility at the CRO Race, the 22-year-old Dane outpacing Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the queen stage of the race in Labin.

The trio had proved the strongest riders of the bunch on the toughest climb of the day, the first-category Skitača (3.2km at 11.7%), which peaked at 21.5km to go on the 174.5km stage.

Tiberi led the way, but Svarre and Wellens chased together to make it three up front for the final 3km of the stage.

In the end, Svarre led the way up the part-cobbled final climb to the finish (1.6km at 6.3%), dropping Wellens as the gradient sharpened with 250 metres to go. Tiberi didn't have the pace to match the Dane's closing kick, and so Svarre's debut pro win also saw him take over the GC lead.

Uno-X Mobility's 17th win of the year sees Svarre head into the race lead with a four-second advantage over Tiberi as Wellens lies third overall at 12 seconds.

Earlier in the day, stage 2 winner Carl-Frederik Bévort (Uno-X Mobility), Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek), and Axel van der Tuuk (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made the break of the day after attacking in the opening 10km.

Behind them, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Bahrain Victorious controlled the peloton as the break raced away to a maximum advantage of seven minutes. Teutenberg led the way over the day's first two climbs to pick up nine mountain classification points.

It was the third climb of the day which would prove decisive, however. On the road to Skitača, the peloton closed to within 1:30 of the leaders, ready for a GC battle on the climb.

The peloton fell apart with Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) pushing the pace for Wellens as Teutenberg went alone at the front. At 23km to go, Svarre accelerated, taking Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Sam Maisonobe (Cofidis) with him.

The trio caught and passed Teutenberg and Bévort as Wellens led the pursuit with Steff Cras (Soudal-QuickStep). At the top of the climb, Tiberi led Svarre by a handful of seconds as Wellens followed 15 seconds back, with Cras and Maisonobe at 30 seconds and a larger group over a minute behind.

Tiberi pushed on at the front, racing alone until 3km to go before Svarre and Wellens bridged across to make it three up front. They held a minute over the next chase group and raced on to the part-cobbled final climb to the finish at Labin, where the stage would be decided.

Results

General classification after stage 3

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