Tour of Slovenia: Roglic wins stage 4 to move into overall lead

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Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) relied on a long solo attack to take the stage 4 win at the Tour of Slovenia on Saturday, seizing the overall lead from previous leader and stage 3 winner Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac).

Roglic attacked on the last of three categorised climbs on the day, crested the summit alone and then went into full time trial mode for the final 20km run to the finish, holding off the first chasing group of nine riders by 33 seconds. After finishing third on Friday, he now leads the overall by 33 seconds over Uran and 43 over 2017 winner Rafal Majak (Bora-Hansgrohe). 

“The outcome is better than yesterday," he said after the stage. "I didn’t have any big tactics, I just asked the guys for the help and then I went for it. Of course it also helps that I have the advantage of the home terrain. I’m repeating myself everyday, but it’s really nice out there racing in front of all these fans. This show is for them. However, the race is not over, I’ll have to focus very hard and do my best tomorrow.”

A 14-rider breakaway that escaped the bunch after the first climb took out an advantage of more than two minutes. The move blew apart on the second climb of the day but then regrouped on the approach to the final ascent. The pack was antsy for the climbers to have their day, however, and the leaders were back in the fold as the peloton hit the final climb, where Roglic let loose his attack.

The 2.1 race concludes Sunday with a 21.5km individual time trial from Trebnje to Novo Mesto.

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