Italian wins crash-strewn stage as the peloton splits on the final climb
Simone Ponzi (Astana) won the opening leg of the Tour de Slovénie, between Celje and Novo Mesto, at the head of a 22-man peloton. The Italian was best at the end of the 152km stage, finishing ahead of Slovenian Marko Kump (Adria Mobil), and fellow Italian Daniele Ratto (Liquigas-Cannondale), as most of the peloton was left behind on the final climb of the day with just over 15km to go.
“I’m very happy,” said Ponzi afterwards. “I have a great feeling here [in Slovenia], because last year I won the one day Kranja Grand Prix.”
The stage was dominated by a two-man breakaway, as Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Klemen Štimulak (Radenska) escaped at the first intermediate sprint, after just 9.8km. Over the first climb of the day, just 18km later, the duo led the peloton by 7’23”, but this began to come down as the Orica-GreenEdge team took control of the peloton.
Over the next climb, after 70.8km, the duo’s lead was down to 4’40”. It briefly rose back up to five minutes, but steadily came down as the closing kilometres approached. Unfortunately, the stage was punctuated by a series of crashes, which saw the abandon of a number of riders, including Lucas Sebastian Heado (Saxo Bank), who was taken to hospital, and Oba Kristjana (Adria Mobil), who suffered a fractured collarbone.
Shortly after the intermediate sprint in Ratež with just over 25km to go, Van Hecke and Štimulak were finally caught. On the climb that followed, the Liquigas-Cannondale, Astana, and Adria Mobil teams managed to force a split in the peloton that saw 22 riders escape to contest the finish.