Tour of Slovenia 2025 Stage 5

June 8, 2025 The GC fight was played out yesterday but there still could be some movement on today's final stage. It's 124KM from Litija to Novo Mesto with just over 2,000M of elevation gained over the distance. There are three categorized climbs that come early in the stage but they should not pose a problem for the overall. The finale starts with the climb to Trebelno with about 39KM to go. It is 4.3KM long and averages 6%. The road rolls generally downhill for the next 18KM to the finish line in Novo Mesto before the riders go out for a one lap circuit to take on Trška Gora which is a 1.7KM climb at 9.7%. There are just 9KM from the top back to the finish line and it presents the last chance for anyone to make moves in the overall. No break had managed to get away over the first few climbs of the day and the bunch was still together until about 75KM to go when five riders finally broke the elastic. The group consisted of Juan Pedro López and Sam Oomen of Lidl-Trek, Márton Dina of Euskatel-Euskadi, and José Félix Parra and Diego Uriarte of Equipo Kern Pharma. Uno-X Mobility were doing the chasing for their race leader Anders Johannessen and had recruited some help for the chase in the form of Pogi Team Gusto Ljubljana. When the Pogi Team pulled off with 47KM to go, the entire Caja Rural-Seguros RGA came to the front and brought the gap down from 1 minute 10 seconds to 45 seconds just a few kilometers later. It was musical chairs at the front of the bunch with Bahrain Victorious coming to the front at the base of the Trebelno climb. Andrea Piras of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini attacked from the peloton with 800M to climb and managed to bridge up to the break with 28.5KM to go on the rolling roads after the descent of Trebelno. The break entered Novo Mesto, crossed the Krka River, and passed through the finish line with 16.5KM to go with a lead of 35 seconds to the peloton. Fatigue was setting in and one of the riders in the break let the wheel go to Piras who found himself ahead of the rest of the break going into the final climb of Trška Gora. López caught and passed Piras as the gradients went well above 12%. Behind, Anders Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility defended his lead by riding hard and dropping all of his opponents. López crested the climb with 9.3KM to go but Johannessen and a gaggle of others were just 25 seconds behind. The group consisted of Johannessen, Jakob Omrzel of Bahrain Victorious, Tao Geoghegan Hart of Lidl-Trek, José Félix Parra of Equipo Kern Pharma, Fernando Barceló of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, and Felix Großschartner of UAE-XRG but a large group of around 25 riders caught them with 6KM to go. Uno-X Mobility did a good job setting a pace hard enough to prohibit any attacks in order to safeguard Johannessen's GC lead. López was in sight with 3KM to go which spurred on Equipo Kern Pharma and others to add riders to the chase. The catch was made just under 1KM to go and the stage win was now up for grabs. Lidl-Trek led through the final corner with 300M to go but it was Ivo Oliveira of UAE-XRG that got the jump and took the stage win with Andrea Bagioli of Lidl-Trek in second and Fernando Barceló of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA in third. Anders Johannessen maintained his GC lead and won the overall by 14 seconds to Felix Großschartner of UAE-XRG and 19 seconds to Tao Geoghegan Hart of Lidl-Trek.