CRO Race 2025 Stage 2

October 1, 2025 Instead of heading inland like on day one, today's race from Biograd na Moru to Novalja is entirely along Croatia's scenic coastline. At just 115KM, it should be blisteringly quick with terrain to be aggressive as well. The first half of the stage is relatively flat through the first intermediate sprint in Zadar. There is a category three climb in Jovići but it's more of a false flat at 2% for 8KM. From the top of the climb in Jovići for the next 35KM, the road gradually trails downhill through Rtina and across the 279M concrete arched Pag Bridge that connects mainland Croatia with the island of Pag. An intermediate sprint in the town of Pag with 29KM to go marks the start of the category 2 Gradac climb which is 2KM at 6%. 10KM later is a 1.7KM uncategorized climb that averages 7% and could be the one to distance the pure sprinters if ridden hard enough. A third intermediate sprint comes in Novalja with 7KM to go. The riders will pass through the finish line for a short 4KM lap before a likely reduced bunch sprint. The riders rolled out from the marina in Biograd na Moru under overcast skies but they would not be racing all the way to Novalja. High winds of over 50KM/HR forced local authorities to close the Pag Bridge which meant that the new finish would be after just 51KM of racing in Jovići. When the flag dropped, everyone seemed to be waiting because their original plan for the day had to be re-drawn with a new strategy. The continental teams were active and with 42KM to go, a group of four joined together including Alex Molenaar of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Domen Oblak and Dan Andrej Tomšič of Pogi Team Gusto Ljubljana, and Artur Sowiński of Run & Race-Wibatech. Soudal Quickstep started riding almost immediately with help from Ineos. Oblak buried himself and was dropped from the break with 34KM to go. 6KM later, the gap was out to 1 minute 20 seconds. Molenaar took the intermediate sprint then dropped away and even though the break was pushing hard, the bunch was gaining ground. With 10KM to go, the gap was down to 30 seconds. When Tomšič and Sowiński turned on to the climb with 7.9KM to go, they had just a handful of seconds on the bunch and would be swept up as UAE-XRG set up on the front. Sprinters started to drop away with 2KM to go as riders on the front of the peloton were pushing harder and harder. A rider from Volter-ATS attacked with 1.5KM to go but the speed of the bunch was so high that he barely go 50M on the bunch before being hauled back. Ineos and UAE-XRG were still doing the damage but the favorites of Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep, Ben Turner of Ineos, and Danny van Poppel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were still sitting in tight. In the last 400M, Magnier got pushed off of van Poppel's wheel and had to make a big effort around the right side to get back to the front. When he reached the back wheel of his teammate, Pepijn Reinderink, with around 200M to go, instead of sitting in for a moment, he accelerated again and caught everyone by surprise. He passed Turner and van Poppel as they tried to react but no one was catching Magnier who hit the line first to continue his incredible winning streak. Fortunately for Edoardo Zambanini of Bahrain Victorious, he was in Magnier's wheel during the sprint which pulled him into second place on the stage ahead of Turner in third.