Tour de Slovenie 2012: June 14-17

[TheOkram]

OK, enough of this personal trivia, and on to the official report

The stage winner and the new leader in general classification Domenico Pozzovivo said in the finish: "It was really hard, as the finish was 40 kms away from the summit of the last climb. With Jani we agreed to cooperate and get to the finish alone. We did it, Jani let me win the stage, and tomorrow will be his turn to win the TT, where I will stand no chance against him, but I hope to retain the podium position in general classification."

Brajkovič was extremely satisfied as well: "Astana did a great job, despite that we are left with 5 riders. Božič and Petrov controlled the race in the first hour and fended off one attack after another. Also Seeldraeyers, who paced the final climb to Soriška planina did an exceptional job. At the beginning of the final ascent I noticed that my opponents are nearly exhausted, so I started to pace really hard and only Pozzovivo could follow me. I lost a lot of my strength as I raced on full for 60 kms today - it will be hard to win the TT tomorrow, but I hope to win the general classification. Pozzovivo cracked in the last 20 kms so I had to do the pacing in the end. A big thanks to everybody again."

"That's the way things work in cycling. You cannot do much by yourself, therefore Domenico's help was very welcome. I let him take the stage in return, I couldn't just take it all", said Brajko for TV Slovenia.

 

[TheOkram]

General classification after the 3rd stage:


1. D. POZZOVIVO ITA 13:59:34
2. J. BRAJKOVIČ SLO +0:04
3. D. RATTO ITA +1:53
4. K. KOREN SLO
5. F. FAILLI ITA +1:57
6. B. PIRES POR
7. T. NOSE SLO
8. G. ANACONA KOL
9. J. GOLČER SLO
10. K. SEELDRAYERS BEL +2:04
...

As always, check the full results here.

Be sure to visit the excellent official photo gallery. I am too tired tonight to insert a few here

 

[SafeBet]

61 Diego ULISSI LAM +16:05

But he did a great Giro.

Or not

 

[Ferminal]

Stage 4

Koren
Malori
Impey
Hepburn
Mouris
Brajkovic
Bewley
Bodnar
Lancaster
Pozzivivo

Nice of Pozzo to get in the top10. GreenEdge take half of it :s

 

[LaFlorecita]

Stage 4

Koren
Malori
Impey
Hepburn
Mouris
Brajkovic
Bewley
Bodnar
Lancaster
Pozzivivo

Nice of Pozzo to get in the top10. GreenEdge take half of it :s

Jani takes GC?

 

[Ruudz0r]

Stage 4

Koren
Malori
Impey
Hepburn
Mouris
Brajkovic
Bewley
Bodnar
Lancaster
Pozzivivo

Nice of Pozzo to get in the top10. GreenEdge take half of it :s

Wow impressive by Pozzovivo

Nice win by Koren aswell.

 

[Ferminal]

Jani takes GC?

Yeh I guess it's Brajkovic, Pozzovivo, Koren.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

1 Brajkovic (AST)
2 Pozzovivo (COG) +6
3 Koren (LIQ) +1'16
4 Pires (SAX) +2'12
5 Rabottini (FAR) +2'23
6 Nerz (LIQ) +2'35
7 Golcer (TIR) +2'39
8 Ratto (LIQ) +2'45
9 Nose (ADR) +st
10 Anacona (LAM) +2'51

 

[Gloin22]

Stage 4

Koren
Malori
Impey
Hepburn
Mouris
Brajkovic
Bewley
Bodnar
Lancaster
Pozzivivo

Nice of Pozzo to get in the top10. GreenEdge take half of it :s

And still none of them made it in Top 10 in GC ( GE )

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Strange that Brajko climbed with Pozzovivo, but couldn't even win the TT against this field

You'd expect him, as a TTer, if he has good enough form to stay with Pozzo on the climbs, to also do a good TT. Well he still won the GC, cheers for him! It's nice to see him win again coming back from the rotten season he had last year.

 

[jens_attacks]

lol he almost lost his home tour....


.....in the itt......


.....against pozzovivo.....


maybe he will be a revelation on the climbs in le tour although i gave up on jani long time ago...

 

[diorgen]

Nice thread, i wish this race was televised. Slovenia is a beautiful country I hope to return to visit again.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Yeah this looks like an awesome race btw

 

[Michele]

1 Brajkovic (AST)
2 Pozzovivo (COG) +6
3 Koren (LIQ) +1'16
4 Pires (SAX) +2'12
5 Rabottini (FAR) +2'23
6 Nerz (LIQ) +2'35
7 Golcer (TIR) +2'39
8 Ratto (LIQ) +2'45
9 Nose (ADR) +st
10 Anacona (LAM) +2'51

Must keep high the colombian hype!

 

[SafeBet]

Also very good ride by Rabottini coming from the legendary stage at the Giro.
Can't dislike this guy.

 

[mb2612]

And still none of them made it in Top 10 in GC ( GE )

They lost the team competition. It's impressive how bad they were.

 

[Wilba60]

They lost the team competition. It's impressive how bad they were.

Who did you think was bad on the team?
Goss, Lancaster and Impey were racing as a final hit out for the Tour. Unfortunately the one hit out chance they had for a sprint finish was on Stage 2, Goss came in last due to diahorrea and many "pit" stops. Impey went on to win the stage.

Hepburn (2nd road race with the team) and Bewley (1st road race with the team and of the season) are training for the Olympics team time trial over 4km. Mitch Docker suffered a severe head injury in the early season and this is only his second race back after 4 or 5 months off the bike.

The team just looked after the sprinters on the mountain stage 3 and although they didn't get a win in the final time trial, still placed 5 in the top 10, 6 in the top 20.

 

[TheOkram]

lol he almost lost his home tour....

.....in the itt......
.....against pozzovivo.....


maybe he will be a revelation on the climbs in le tour although i gave up on jani long time ago...

What Brajko said for Sportal after the TT:

"I am satisfied with the race, but not with my TT. It just didn't go. Fortunately I won the blue jersey, which is a big motivation for the Tour. Unfortunately intermediate times were not measured in the TT event. Had I known the placements during my ride, I could have finished a couple of seconds faster. It all ended well eventually. I am disappointed, but it could have been worse."

It was questioned whether he did right to leave the 3rd stage to Pozzovivo. Definitely the fans at the finish were disappointed not seeing him fight to win the stage. Actually in recent years Slovenians rarely won, the last victory before Koren's TT on Sunday, was Vrečer's TT last year, also in Ljubljana.

I am not so sure about Pozzovivo's contribution to the escape in 3rd stage. Jani attacked 3 kms from the summit and led vigorously all the way up with Pozzovivo working very hard to follow. Given Pozzi's lack of skill in descending and Jani's (probable) knowledge of the route, he could not have contributed in descend either - and they actually gained some more time here. And in the last 40 kms or so, Pozzi allegedly had trouble with cramps for the final 20 kms, so he was of not much use here either. But surely, Jani and Pozzi were quite surprisingly able to keep their advantage all the way to the finish.

(That's them within final 100's of m before the 3rd stage finish in Škofja Loka)

The most vicious domestic comment I read was that Brajko has finally found a race level where he can win

What I am personally most worried about is that Brajko is still religiously wearing the yellow bracelet... I only hope that when the Evil Tower of Mordor will finally fall, Jani will not go down with them...

 

[TheOkram]

Nice thread, i wish this race was televised. Slovenia is a beautiful country I hope to return to visit again.

Hey, you are welcome!

This year and the previous year the weather during the race was just fantastic, and thankfully Sportal's photos do the scenery some justice.

WRT the TV coverage, in the previous years TV Slovenia was making daily 30-minute reports that were actually semi-digestible and nearly exciting to watch (given that they were broadcast around 11 PM after the respective stage). We were told that live coverage is out of the question due to the costs - terrain in Slovenia is very hilly and it would be a logistical nightmare to provide the live link. We cycling fans wonder nevertheless if this could not have been organized for the cost of broadcasting one stupid F1 race on TV SLO (for example).

This year I think there is a collision between TV Slovenia and the general sponsor of the Dirka, the Siol.net digital content provider, who are going to start a new TV station in autumn. There was no TV coverage and nobody explained why, but you get the idea. As several forum members noted, the "live" (ha ha) coverage provided by Siol this year was a farce with a single stationary camera at the finish line.