Even early Visma attack from Gloag can’t shake Magnier: Frenchman completes hattrick in Slovakia

So far, it had been the great Paul Magnier show in the 2.1 race. The Frenchman impressively dominated the sprints on day one and day two. The question was whether he would also get to sprint on day three, as the 191.7-kilometer stage from Kezmarok to Banksá Bystrica again included quite a few meters of climbing.

Whereas the early breakaway this week had usually been quick, on Friday, it took a little longer for a leading group to get away. This was due to the uphill start, where we saw Thomas Gloag of Visma | Lease a Bike accelerate very early on. At that point, there were still more than 150 kilometers to go to the finish.

The Brit broke away and ended up solo at the front. Behind him, a lot of riders tried to join him, but that proved to be not so easy. When Rémi Daumas (Groupama-FDJ development team), Pawel Bernas (Mazowsze Serce Polski), and Martin Voltr (ATT Investments) tried, Gloag was willing to wait. The Brit saw three attackers come alongside him, and so we ended up with a leading group of four.

A long intermediate phase followed, but the four did not get much space. On a climb 55 kilometers from the finish, the group broke apart: Bernas had to let go at the front, while a peloton that had picked up speed quickly caught up with the remaining leaders. Gloag, who will move to Q36.5 next year, stayed ahead with Daumas and Voltr.

As we had seen twice before this week, it was Soudal Quick-Step that controlled the entire day. With 40 kilometers to go, the peloton was intact again, and it looked like we were heading for another sprint. A final climb of just under two kilometers at 4.8% remained.

The question was whether Jayco AlUla would still have plans on that little climb. The Australian team had surprisingly helped Soudal Quick-Step bring back the breakaway group, but then disappeared from the front. A strange tactic from Jayco AlUla, we can say.

In the run-up to that very short climb, Oscar Nilsson-Julien (Groupama-FDJ development team) and Rick Ottema (Diftar Continental) broke away. The pair were permitted to do so by the peloton, although the pack kept them at half a minute. Not much later, Nilsson-Julien was left on his own, as Ottema had to drop back.

The Frenchman was also caught up in time, and so we went sprinting again in Slovakia. The question for almost the entire peloton was: how are you going to surprise Magnier? The answer: you can't. The Frenchman won again with ease after an excellent lead-out, completing his hat trick after just three days.