Paul Magnier won the opening stage of the Tour of Slovakia, also Okolo Slovenska, after his Soudal-QuickStep teammates were forced to chase down numerous attacks from WorldTour rivals Visma-Lease a Bike.
A select peloton stayed together despite the late attacks and then Soudal-QuickStep led Magnier into the rising cobbled road to the finish line. Magnier used his power and sprinting skills to surge away on the front and won by several bike lengths.
He beat local rider Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Joppe Heremans (VolkerWessels).
How it unfolded
The opening stage of the Tour of Slovakia was a rolling 141km ride that included two loops and a final 40km circuit after a visit to the finish area.
Four riders bravely went on the attack early and formed the break of the day - Łukasz Owsian (Mazowsze Serce Polski), Oscar Nilsson-Julien (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ) and Michal Schlegel (Elkov-Kasper). They opened a gap of 1:15 with 122km to go and extended it to 2:00.
However, Soudal-QuickStep and Visma-Lease a Bike were determined to control the racing.
The early break of the day was eventually caught with 30km to go on the short but steep Kurov climb. Tom Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike) surged across to the front of the race and so sparked a series of attacks on the ride to the finish.
A front peloton of 40 riders formed during the aggressive racing as riders tried to avoid a sprint finish. Gloag, Bart Lemmen, Matisse Van Kerckhove and Cian Uijtdebroeks all launched attacks, forcing Yves Lampaert to chase every move for Magnier.
Australia's Logan Currie (Lotto) was the last to launch strong attacks but he was also pulled back before Soudal-QuickStep took control and prepared a text-book lead out for Magnier to do his thing on the riding finish.
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