Ukrainian Tsarenko holds off favorites from early breakaway to win in Slovenia, Johannessen takes leader’s jersey

So far, the Tour of Slovenia has been a great success for the Netherlands, thanks to Dylan Groenewegen. The Dutch champion was the strongest in both mass sprints, in stage 1 and stage 3. However, the leader's jersey was in the hands of Swiss rider Fabio Christen, who had won the second stage (after Rui Oliveira was relegated). The Q36.5 rider had to defend his jersey in the queen stage, where the climb to the Golte ski resort would decide the overall classification.

The first part of the stage was fairly flat, however. Six riders managed to break away from the peloton but never got much of a lead. After 110 kilometers, the first obstacle appeared: the Volovjek Pass. It was a tough 5.3-kilometer climb at 8.3%, which thinned out the peloton considerably. Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) tried to cross over to the leading group, but the Spaniard was alone and ended up in a textbook chasse patate.

In the valley leading to the final climb, however, the leaders extended their lead: at the foot of the 13-kilometer-long ordeal, they had a 4.30-minute lead. However, the road to the ski resort was so tough that it still didn't seem enough. Samuele Zoccarato (Polti VistiMalta), Carl-Frederik Bévort (Uno-X Mobility), and Kyrylo Tsarenko (Solution Tech) remained at the front. Still, Lidl-Trek was setting a fast pace behind them on the early slopes of the mountain for their leader, Tao Geoghegan Hart. This halved the lead halfway up the climb, but the most challenging part was yet to come.

The last 6 kilometers had an average gradient of more than 9%. Tsarenko and Zoccarato shook off Bévort and held their ground, partly because Lidl-Trek had not really pushed hard yet. The Ukrainian managed to drop the Italian and went in search of a surprise stage victory. Riders from the peloton began to stir: riders from the Caja Rural—Seguros RGA and Burgos BH—Burpellet camps, among others, wanted to join the leaders.

Lidl-Trek saw its chances slowly disappearing, so Hart accelerated himself. He didn't get away, but with Juan Pedro López, he could play a clever game. Leader Christen suddenly found himself in trouble under the pace of the favorites. It was a case of running and standing still for the best climbers, and Tsarenko kept pushing steadily. Tobias Anders Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) opened a gap on his rivals and tried to catch the leader.

The latter had a lead of about 45 seconds, but suddenly, the pace picked up considerably. The Norwegian number two in the GC was keen to catch the leader but could not do so, who went on to claim the most beautiful victory of his career. Johannessen was the best GC rider and took over the leader's jersey from Christen.