Tour de Slovakia: Anders Foldager captures uphill victory on stage 2

Denmark’s Anders Foldager has made it two out of two for Jayco-AIUIa in the Tour de Slovakia as he netted a solo uphill victory on stage 2 for the Australian team.

After the race shattered on the final short climb at the end of a rugged 192-kilometre trek from Nitra to Hilohovec, Foldager crossed the line one second clear of Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Dstny) and Lukas Kobis (Elkov-Kasper). Former double world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) finished fourth.

Third across the line on stage 1 in the team time trial won by Jayco-AIUIa, Foldager now moves into the overall lead, taking over from teammate Max Walscheid.

The young Dane will now have to defend his lead on the considerably flatter stage 3, a 161-kilometre run from Piest’any to Dubnia nad Vahom.

“It was a hot, tough day today, but we got the win,” Foldager, also now the leader in the points ranking, said in a statement on the race website.

“This is our second win [TTT], too, so we can be satisfied. Tomorrow [Friday] we’ll go for a hat-trick as it’s expected to be a bunch sprint and we have good riders here for that kind of finish, too.”

A 144-strong pack took to the start of stage 2, with former Criterium du Dauphiné stage winner Mark Padun (Corratec-Vini Fantini) one DNS after finishing outside the time limit and after a very fast start, three riders eventually went clear: Matúš Štoček (ATT), Jente Klaver (VolkerWessels) and Dimitri Peyskens (Bingoal WB). 

Their lead rose to over five minutes before Jayco-AIUIa took a firmer grip on chasing behind. Meanwhile, Štoček picked up all the points on the six classified climbs of the day, including the lone category 1 ascent, the  Dlhý vŕšok and Klaver and Peyskens divided up the intermediate sprints. 

Peter Sagan (Pierre Baguette), riding what will likely be his last road race, reportedly struggled on some of the later climbs but after a 20-kilometre chase managed to regain contact.

With 50 kilometres to go, the trio’s gap began sinking remorselessly as they moved onto the much flatter finale and Soudal-QuickStep, likely riding for Alaphilippe, picked up the pace. Nine kilometres from the finish, the trio were finally reeled in, and the bunch lined out in anticipation of the final short but punchy ascent to Hlohovec castle.

After a hard fight on the 700-metre climb, Foldager emerged from the woods into bright sunlight with a scant second’s advantage over his closest pursuers. It wasn’t a huge margin, but enough to net the 2023 Tour de L’Avenir and Giro Next Gen stage winner the first victory of his professional career, and the race lead to boot.

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