A late surge by Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AIUIa) saw the Dutch sprinter narrowly capture the opening stage 1 of the Tour of Slovenia.
Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) claimed second on the 204.5 kilometre stage from Murska Sobota to Ormož, with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) in third.
A dangerous late attack by Jhonatan Narváez (ineos Grenadiers) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was only pulled back until two kilometres to go, and a bunch sprint became all but inevitable.
Uno-X led out the sprint on a twisting run-in, but Groenewegen timed his late move perfectly to clinch the fifth Tour of Slovenia stage win of his career.
"It's a final that suits us, really hectic but in the end the team did a good job," Groenewegen, fresh from a victory in the Ronde van Limburg one-day race and a previous winner in Ormuz, said afterwards.
"I was boxed in a lot of times, but so was everybody, I think. It's a bit sad that [leadout man] Luka Mezgec crashed earlier on, but he did a really good job as the third last man even so. It was a victory for the team." How it unfolded
The largely flat stage was run off in dry, cool weather, with a five-rider break opening up a small gap early on. Szymon Tracz (Santic-Wibatec), Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic) Alzaj Turk (Adria Mobil), Tomas Kalojiros (Pierre Baguette Cycling), and Matic Žumer (Sava Kranj Cycling) joined forces after 25 kilometres and opened up a gap of four minutes. That was enough of a margin to spark a reaction from two of the teams with sprinter interests, Bora-Hansgrohe - racing for Sam Welsford and Bahrain Victorious, racing for Phil Bauhaus and Nikias Arndt.
A very uneventful middle section of the long stage, crisscrossing the borders into three neighbouring countries, saw a tired Turk drop back to the peloton. But despite a steady chase by the sprinters' teams, the quartet kept their options open deep into the second half of the day's racing. Some occasional showers rendered the race course a little slippy, and a crash with 35 kilometres to go left David Gonzalez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) in difficulties and Alessandro Monaco (Corratec- Vini Fantini) with a snapped seatpost.
Yet more teams added their shoulder to the collective wheel chasing behind, including Ineos Grenadiers, racing for Elia Viviani, and sparking a solo effort from local racer Žumer.
The other three in the break sat up and waited but Žumer drove on determinedly, passing through several clouds of smoke sparked by flare-wielding fans. Behind a crash for two Jayco-AIUIa riders, including Mezgec, slowed the peloton a little more and gave Žumer some more breathing space.
Žumer could snatch maximum seconds at the final sprint at Gorisnica, but a concerted drive by UAE behind reduced the gap to a bare minimum and allowed Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and Domen Novak to claim the remaining bonuses on offer.
While Žumer battled grimly on alone, UAE, Ineos and Tudor ProCycling continued to make their intentions clear behind, keeping more of a controlling pace rather than making an all-out pursuit. His head and shoulders shaking, Žumer was clearly all but at the end of his strength, and it was only on a slight rise that he finally threw in the towel.
When the peloton flashed across the finish line for the first time for a final bonus sprint with six kilometres to go, the battle for points and seconds saw Giro d'Italia leader Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) claim the top spot, with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) just behind. The two then pressed on, sowing confusion in the ranks of the sprinters' teams as they fought to reorganise.
As Narváez tired a little, Uno-X and Ineos driving hard in the last two kilometres finally permitted the bunch to regain contact. But reeling in the late break so close to the finish meant it was complicated for any team to regain control and in the chaotic sprint, Groenewegen made the most of the technical finale for a narrow but clear victory.
A much lumpier and shorter stage from Zalec to Rogaska Slatina on Thursday, with the main climbing difficulty a cat.2 ascent mid-race, could well see the break stick. While the overall riders will likely keep their options open on the 177-kilometre stage, the GC battles will likely come at the weekend and the race's one summit finish, the cat.1 Kvavec.
"There are more climbs tomorrow [Thursday]than today and it is a little bit harder for me," Groenewegen, already a winner in a previous edition of Slovenia in Rogaska Slatina said afterwards. "But our morale is very high now and we also have GC ambitions too. So first we'll drink a little bit of champagne tonight and tomorrow is another stage."
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