Tour of Slovakia: Paul Double soars to stunning solo victory on Queen stage

Paul Double took a stunning solo victory in the Queen stage of the Okolo Slovenska, sealing the general classification victory in the process for Team Jayco-AlUla. The Australian team were on the offensive all day with Team Visma | Lease a Bike, but despite the efforts of Bart Lemmen and fellow Brit Thomas Gloag, who finished second and third both the stage and in the overall standings, it was Double who was able to move clear to take just his second professional win.

Second to Soudal-QuickStep’s Paul Magnier on each of the previous four stages, Slovakian national champion Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) put in a heroic effort, part of the day’s early break and then managing to stay with the lead group until the second half of the final climb when he finally lost touch, finishing in a still impressive 6th place on the general classification.

Speaking immediately after the stage, Double spoke about how he was feeling. “First, the emotions to win the stage, and I wasn’t sure if we won the overall. It was worth it after four sprint days, it was getting a bit frustrating mentally, so it was nice to do something on the stage we wanted to do something on.

The 29-year-old confirmed that it was indeed the biggest win of his career to date: “yeah for sure, I only won my first race earlier this year, I was hoping to do the same this year, it was getting a bit frustating I hadn’t, but finally I’ve done it, and now to win the overall, which I think we’ve won, it’s a big emotion.”

The final, decisive stage of the Okolo Slovakia was a short but punchy affair, beginning in Nová Dubnica and headed Kohútka over a 124km profile featuring four categorised climbs, and the first and only summit finish of the race. There was plenty of interest in being part of a breakaway effort at the final time of asking, and a large group of 15 riders escaped from the bunch, including second placed rider on GC before the stage, Lukas Kubiš.

It was a race that up to that point had been completely dominated by Soudal-QuickStep and Paul Magnier, but the situation shifted as with general classification aims, it was the two strongest teams on paper, Team Jayco-AlUla and Team Visma | Lease a Bike, who took the initiative on the hilly course, driving the pace in the bunch and closing down the breakaway with 69km remaining. Cian Uijtdebroeks went on the offensive early for Visma, as the bunch was shredded on the final ascent of the challenging Vršatec climb, but Double was equal to it, following the young Belgian to form a leading duo at the head of the race with 55km to go. They quickly built a lead over the rest, though Kubiš did his best to chase, as Magnier lost touch on the descent, with riders all over the road.

“I think maybe we slept a little bit the other day,” Double said when asked about why he attacked so early. “So we didn’t want to be on the back foot today, when Cian went I had to be there, I wasn’t going anywhere but I had to cover it so I wasn’t on the back foot.”

As the road flattened out, though, Double and Uijtdebroeks returned to the peloton to benefit from the support of their teammates, but Kubiš remained within the group, with Magnier over a minute down in a chasing group, With just over 20km remaining, Magnier was out of the picture almost 2:30 down, and the attacks began again, with Jayco-AlUla and Visma-Lease a Bike attacking and counter-attacking, but heading into the final climb, it was Kubiš who had a golden opportunity to take the overall victory on home soil, after a week of finishing second to Magnier on the previous four stages, if only he could hang on to the two WorldTour teams on the climb.

With 5km remaining on the climb, Jayco-Alula attacked, with Felix Englehart leading out  Double. He got a small gap, as the Visma team chased behind to try and close him down, with Kubiš pacing himself well up the climb. It was Bart Lemmen who was able to follow, with Uijtdebroeks and Thomas Gloag chasing behind. Gloag kicked and tried to to bridge to the lead duo, but Double kept the pace high preventing the Brit from making contact, and with 600m to the line, Double pulled clear of Lemmen to go solo, and stayed clear all the way to the line, sealing a well-earned victory and taking the general classification by a margin of 34 seconds over Lemmen on the final day of the race.

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