Tour de Slovakia: Julian Alaphilippe attacks in final kilometre and wins stage 3

Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) won a rain-soaked stage 3 at the Tour de Slovakia. It was a 1-2 for the Soudal-QuickStep team as Paul Magnier took second place, while Hamish Beadle (Novo Nordisk).

Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla), who won the second stage, finished in a group 16 seconds behind the stage winner, but maintained his overall race lead. Alaphilippe moved up three positions in the GC standings to second, now just 10 seconds back of Foldager heading into stage 4's hilly 183.5km race from Partizánske to Ružomberok on Saturday.

“I am delighted I could keep the tradition going and make it seven consecutive years that we won at least a stage in Okolo Slovenska," aid Alaphilippe after Soudal-QuickStep’s 15th stage victory in Slovakia. "The guys did a fantastic job today, and in the finale, I just felt it was a good opportunity to try something and surprise the others. 

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"I went all-out and I’m happy I could pull it off. The fact that we finished 1-2 makes it even more beautiful. I made a nice jump in the standings after this win, but I’m not thinking of the GC at the moment."

The third stage at the Tour de Slovakia was a lumpy 161km from Piešťany to Dubnica nad Váhom, which included three categorised ascents at Hruba Stana (0.5km at 5.2%), Dubrava (4.5km at 5.1%), and Hrabovka (1.3km at 5.5%) and nearly 70km of primarily flat roads on the way to the finish in Dubnica nad Váhom.

An early breakaway emerged that included Sam Gademan (VolkerWessels), Žiga Horvat (Hrinkow), Dominik Dunár (Dukla), Tomáš Kalojíros (Pierre Baguette) and Martin Jurík (Adria).

The five riders immediately pushed their lead out to 1:20, and the gap continued to increase to nearly three minutes just 25km into the race.

Horvat picked up the first mountain points over Hruba Stana. Their gap fluctuated but ultimately reached a maximum of 3:25 at the 75km mark as Horvat, again, took the mountain points over the top of the Dubrava ascent.

The skies opened to rain, making the roads slippery, which caused several mid-race crashes.

From the breakaway, Kalojíros took the final mountain points over Hrabovka. They splintered apart on the run-in to Dubnica nad Váhom, and they were all eventually caught at 15km out.

The last kilometre of the course was technical, with a straight final 300 metres to the line, expected to suit a punchy rider.

Soudal-Quickstep moved to the front of the field with three kilometres to go, which served as a launching pad for Alaphilippe to make his winning attack inside the final kilometre and take the stage win.

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