Preview Tour of Slovakia 2025 | Visma | Lease a Bike and Magnier against the rest?
CyclingTuesday, 16 September 2025 at 17:28
The World Championships in Rwanda are exciting, sure, but starting Wednesday, there’s plenty of racing in Europe too. Alongside the Tour of Luxembourg, the Tour of Slovakia kicks off: a five-day stage race with a very interesting list of participants. Which riders will show their form ahead of the battle for the rainbow jerseys in Africa? IDLProCycling.com tells you everything you need to know.
A look at the Slovakia honor roll shows a clear shift in level from 2017 onward. That makes sense, as the stage race was upgraded from a 2.2 to a 2.1 event that year. Big names like Jan Tratnik, Julian Alaphilippe, and Peter Sagan have taken wins here over the years. What stands out most, though, is the dominance of Soudal–Quick Step, with five overall victories in the last ten editions.
Latest winners Tour of Slovakia
2024 Mauro Schmid
2023 Rémi Cavagna
2022 Josef Cerny
2021 Peter Sagan
2020 Jannik Steimle
2019 Yves Lampaert
2018 Julian Alaphilippe
2017 Jan Tratnik
2016 Mauro Finetto
2015 Davide Viganò
2023 Rémi Cavagna
2022 Josef Cerny
2021 Peter Sagan
2020 Jannik Steimle
2019 Yves Lampaert
2018 Julian Alaphilippe
2017 Jan Tratnik
2016 Mauro Finetto
2015 Davide Viganò
Course, favorites stage wins and timings Tour of Slovakia 2025
Stage 1, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025: Bardejov - Bardejov (141.2 km)
Three categorized climbs are on the menu, but the expectation is still that we’ll see sprints at the end of small uphill drags.
Times
Start: 1:30 p.m.
Finish: around 4:45 p.m.
Start: 1:30 p.m.
Finish: around 4:45 p.m.
Stage 2, Thursday, September 18, 2025: Svidník - Košice (169.4 km)
Stage 2 will be a toss-up for the fast men, with three climbs in the second half of the stage that could open the door for sprinters who handle the hills better.
Favorites
Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step)
Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Martin Svrček (Soudal-Quick Step)
Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step)
Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Martin Svrček (Soudal-Quick Step)
Times
Start: 10:45 a.m.
Finish: around 2:45 p.m.
Start: 10:45 a.m.
Finish: around 2:45 p.m.
Stage 3, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025: Kežmarok - Banská Bystrica (191.7 km)
Up, down, up, down, up, down. Could this already be where riders land an early blow, ones we’ll also see back in contention for the GC later in the week?
Favorites
Yves Lampaert (Soudal-Quick Step)
Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Paul Double (Jayco AlUla)
Yves Lampaert (Soudal-Quick Step)
Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Paul Double (Jayco AlUla)
Times
Start: 10 a.m.
Finish: around 2:45 p.m.
Start: 10 a.m.
Finish: around 2:45 p.m.
Stage 4, Saturday, September 20, 2025: Vráble - Sládkovičovo (169.1 km)
Flat as a pancake, so sprinting it is!
Favorites
Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step)
Milan Menten (Lotto)
Niklas Behrens (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step)
Milan Menten (Lotto)
Niklas Behrens (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Times
Start: 12:50 p.m.
Finish: around 4:45 p.m.
Start: 12:50 p.m.
Finish: around 4:45 p.m.
Stage 5, Sunday, September 21, 2025: Nová Dubnica - Kohútka (124.0 km)
Short but sharp! With the Vrsatec climb tackled three times (3.6 km at 8.1%) and a mountain-top finish in Kohútka after a 5.5 km climb at 6.5% average, this is where everything will be decided.
Favorites
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Paul Double (Jayco AlUla)
Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Paul Double (Jayco AlUla)
Times
Start: 10:30 a.m.
Finish: around 1:45 p.m.
Start: 10:30 a.m.
Finish: around 1:45 p.m.
Favorites general classification Tour of Slovakia 2025
Visma | Lease a Bike undoubtedly arrives with the strongest GC squad in Slovakia. The team has three or four potential winners, but on paper Cian Uijtdebroeks is the man to beat. If the Belgian survives the explosive opening stages, he can set things straight in the final stage.
Should Uijtdebroeks lose time early on, Visma can switch to Thomas Gloag, who showed good form again in the Tour of Britain. And as wild cards, the Dutch squad also has the experienced Bart Lemmen and youngsters Tijmen Graat and Menno Huising up their sleeve. Safe to say, Visma | Lease a Bike is the top favorite for the overall victory.
Continue reading below the photo
Cian Uijtdebroeks
The challengers are scattered across the other teams. Jayco AlUla lines up Paul Double and Davide De Pretto, two interesting names, though neither has shown top form recently. At Unibet Tietema Rockets, eyes are on Lukas Kubis, but a GC result from newcomer Eivind Broholt Fougner also looks realistic.
Outsiders? Lotto brings talented youngster Lucas Van Gils. Matyáš Kopecký has already impressed this year for Team Novo Nordisk, and at Biesse–Carrera–Premac we’ll be keeping a close eye on Filippo Agostinacchio, the cyclocross rider who won a stage at this year’s Giro NextGen.
Data powered by FirstCycling.com
According to IDLProCycling.com, who are the favorites for the final classification of the Tour of Slovakia 2025?
Top favorites: Cian Uijtdebroeks and Thomas Gloag (both Visma | Lease a Bike)
Outsiders: Bart Lemmen and Tijmen Graat (both Visma | Lease a Bike), Paul Double (Jayco AlUla) and Eivind Broholt Fougner (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Long shots: Davide de Pretto (Jayco AlUla), Menno Huising (Visma | Lease a Bike), Matyáš Kopecky (Team Novo Nordisk), Lucas Van Gils (Lotto), Filippo Agostinacchio (Biesse-Carrera-Premac) and Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Outsiders: Bart Lemmen and Tijmen Graat (both Visma | Lease a Bike), Paul Double (Jayco AlUla) and Eivind Broholt Fougner (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
Long shots: Davide de Pretto (Jayco AlUla), Menno Huising (Visma | Lease a Bike), Matyáš Kopecky (Team Novo Nordisk), Lucas Van Gils (Lotto), Filippo Agostinacchio (Biesse-Carrera-Premac) and Lukas Kubis (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
TV Tour of Slovakia 2025
The Tour of Slovakia will be broadcast live all week on Eurosport 1 and HBO Max. Depending on finish times, the last two hours of each stage can be viewed on the telly and online.
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Latest Comments
- Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
- All they learned is that at the end of a 3 week race, Wout can beat him on a slightly bumpy stage. Obviously, this is very much thanks to Wout not racing for GC every day. This doesn't teach them a thing for Jonas beating Pogi. Not saying Jonas will never beat him again. But this absolutely won't have anything to do with it if he does beat him.Veganpotter28-07-2025
- Well, he eventually Pogacar pays the price for his insane spring campaign which was really crazyRosenkohl196125-07-2025
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
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