Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) won the 159km opening stage of the Tour de Slovenia in Murska Sobota today.
The last metres of the race were very chaotic with two crashes that involved Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).
Consonni was the fastest at the very reduced sprint and he was followed by Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-hansgrohe) and Nicolo Bonifazio.
“What joy, finally! I was waiting for this moment for some time” Consonni said. “I was talking with my girlfriend before leaving to this race, that I miss the feeling that you get only when you cross the line first.
“I knew that I could do it, it was only a question of time. I want to thank the UAE Team Emirates staff and teammates to have helped me and gave me the possibility to play my hand”.
Tour of Slovenia 2018 – stage 1 results (Lendava – Murska Sobota):
| 1 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | 3:32:05 |
| 2 | Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 3 | Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 4 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 5 | Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 6 | Sondre Enger (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 7 | Timo Roosen (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 8 | Rok Korošec (My Bike Stevens) | ,, |
| 9 | Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
| 10 | Luca Colnaghi (Sangemini-Mg. K Vis-Vega) | ,, |
General classification after stage 1:
| 1 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | 3:31:55 |
| 2 | Benjamin Hill (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum) | +02” |
| 3 | Jon Bozic (Adria Mobil) | +03” |
| 4 | Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04” |
| 5 | Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) | +06” |
| 6 | Juraj Bellan (Dukla Banska Bystrica) | +08” |
| 7 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | +10” |
| 8 | Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 9 | Sondre Enger (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 10 | Timo Roosen (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
