Tour of Slovakia: Hodeg wins stage 1

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Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-QuickStep), won Stage 1 of the Tour of Slovakia on his 25th birthday, launched to victory by yet another perfect Deceuninck-QuickStep lead out. He also takes the lead in the overall classification, thanks to the bonus seconds on the line.

Positioning was of the utmost importance given the presence of a final right-hand turn 400 metres from the finish, and as the peloton kicked out of this corner, a three-man QuickStep train emerged at the front. As has become customary this season, Michael Mørkøv (Deceuninck-QuickStep) provided the final lead out, leaving Hodeg a clear run to the line.

Behind Hodeg, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohë) finished second, and moves up to second overall, while Reinhart Janse van Rensburg (Qhubeka NextHash) completed the podium.

"I want to say the team was perfect because they were always taking care of me all day," Hodeg said at the finish. "We knew that Bora would want to do the climb full [gas] and in the end, we were only 60 or 70 riders. I just believed in my team, and they put me in the perfect position for the last kilometre. I just finished the work that they did all day. For sure, I'm leaving the team but, like I said to the boss Patrick [Lefevre], I want to do my best in the last days. I'm very happy for this birthday present for me and thanks to the team."

How it unfolded

Beginning in Košice like the prologue, Stage 1 offered a different sort of test in the form of a 158.4km loop around the surrounding countryside, encompassing four categorised climbs. Despite the hilly terrain, a bunch sprint was expected, and the race unfurled with the typical cadence of a sprint stage.

A category 3 climb loomed immediately after the neutral zone, and, like a magnet to iron filings, the promise of early mountain points attracted a fierce fight to be in the breakaway. The first attempts were unsuccessful but eventually an eight-man group formed, composed of Martin Haring (Dukla Banská Bystrica), Andrea Garosio (Bardiani CSF Faizane), Roger Adria (Equipo Kern Pharma, Jaime Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma), Eirik Lunder (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Tomasz Budzinski (HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski), Dylan Sunderland (Qhubeka NextHash) and Gabriele Petrelli (Cycling Team Friuli ASD). They amassed a maximum advantage of three minutes.

Once the breakaway had formed, there was an equally fierce fight for the mountain points available on the road. Petrelli took the maximum points at the summit of the first category 3 climb, Budzinski did the same at the next climb. They were both beaten, however, by Garosio on the final two climbs. Garosio's victory on the only category 2 climb of the day ensured that he leapfrogged his rivals in the mountains competition, and he collected the polka-dot jersey on the podium at the end of the day.

In the intermediate sprints, meanwhile, Lunder proved the most consistent rider, gaining 17 points and eight bonus seconds to catapult himself into third place in the overall standings.

Besides the action in the breakaway, a familiar lull settled over the race, punctuated only by the news that Jai Hindley (Team DSM) was forced to abandon after crashing earlier in the stage. As the kilometres ticked by, the Bora Hansgrohe-led peloton began to accelerate, in preparation for the near inevitable catch.

Sensing this, Castrillo launched a solo attack on the final climb, splintering the breakaway. He was first caught by a chase group composed of Sunderland and Carl Fredrik Hagen (Israel Start-Up Nation). They, in turn, were then caught by the peloton 5km from the finish.

Following the breakaway's demise, a drag race between the sprint trains ensued as each one sought to position their sprinter as close to the front before the sharp right-hand turn with 400m to go. Deceuninck-QuickStep displayed their strength in this discipline and perfectly led out Hodeg who held off the attentions of Sagan and Janse van Rensburg to take his third victory of the season.