Tadej Pogačar laid down a Tour de France marker with a dominant victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Slovenia, which put him into the overall lead of the race.
The Tour de France champion shone again as UAE Team Emirates again prized open the stage and played a numbers game thanks to Rafal Majka and Pogačar.
Pogačar triumphed on the uphill finish at Celje after making a powerful late attack. Overall leader Majka came home 11 seconds later for a team one-two, passing his leader's green jersey to Pogačar.
Alpecin-Fenix new signing Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Fenix), dispatched by the duo on the final climb to the line, took the final podium spot at 14 seconds.
Pogačar will now ride through his hometown of Komenda as race leader during stage 4.
The race was largely together and still open-ended as it hit the category-2 Svetina climb with 25km to go. However, Pogacar and Majka were determined not to let it come down to the final incline.
Pogacar forced the issue and soon only his teammate could follow him. They crested the climb alone together, with a lead of nearly 30 seconds. As second-placed Domen Novak fell away, his Bahrain Victorious teammate Matej Mohoric tried to give chase. Despite the Slovenian's descending skills, he was never able to make the junction on the downhill and had to slot back into the chase group.
Towards the bottom of the descent, Conci made an attack and did succeed in getting across to the leading duo. However, as the road tilted up towards the finish in the final few kilometres, he was put to the sword again.
Conci was able to follow Pogacar's initial surge with 2km to go but then had to relent when the Tour champion mustered repeated accelerations. Conci then dropped back to Majka, who attacked him in turn to make it a team one-two.
Luka Mezgec (Bike-Exchange-Jayco) led a fragmented bunch home in fourth place at 36 seconds, alongside Mohoric, as Novak finished 13th at 47 seconds.
In the overall standings, Pogacar now leads the way, with a lead of seven seconds of Majka, and Novak third at 55 seconds.
-
Vuelta a España stage 6 LIVE: Breakaway clear on the first Pyrenean mountain test of the race
170km and 3,600 metres of climbing on the menu on the road to Pal -
Chris Froome hospitalised with multiple fractures after a crash during training
Froome to undergo surgery after sustaining injuries including five broken ribs, a fractured vertebra, and a pneumothorax -
Vuelta a España director vows action against pro-Palestine protesters who disrupted Israel-Premier Tech during stage 5
'We are going to file a complaint; we cannot allow what happened' says Javier Guillén -
'You're on a knife-edge, mistakes can and do happen' – Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe regroup to fourth after nasty Sobrero crash in Vuelta a España TTT
'He's our engine room – to lose him at that point in the race obviously lost us a lot of performance' says Head of Engineering Dan Bigham to Cyclingnews
