CyclingQuotes.com uses cookies for statistics and targeting ads. This information is shared with third parties.
ACCEPT COOKIES » MORE INFO »

Every day we bring you more pro-cycling news

Having dropped Haig inside the final 2km, Taaramae rode to a dominant solo win on the Tour de Slovenie queen stage; Haig was second and Bernal third and Taaramae is the new leader

Photo: ANSA - PERI / DI MEO / ZENNARO

REIN TAARAMAE

RIDER PROFILE
|
NEWS

TOUR DE SLOVENIE

RACE PROFILE
|
NEWS
17.06.2016 @ 20:19 Posted by Emil Axelgaard

Rein Taaramae (Katusha) proved that he has finished the Giro d’Italia in excellent condition by riding to a dominant solo victory in the Tour de Slovenie queen stage. Having been set up by his teammate Pavel Kochetkov, he dropped his final companion Jack Haig (Orica-GreenEDGE) with less than 2km to go and then powered to the top of the final climb with a 36-second advantage, with Egan Bernal (Androni) crossing the line in third. Taaramae also took the leader’s jersey on the eve of the time trial.

 

Last August Rein Taaramae finally left his many health issues behind and returned to his former status as one of the best riders for one-week stage races. The Estonian won the Vuelta a Burgos and Arctic Race of Norway and realized that more was possible.

 

However, he was locked in a domestique role at Astana so he joined Katusha to get more freedom. With Ilnur Zakarin showing excellent form, he again had to do the Giro d’Italia as a support rider but when his captain crashed out, he proved his class by winning the final big mountain stage.

 

This week Taaramae finally gets a chance to lead his team at the Tour de Slovenie and today he showed that he is still in great form as he crushed the opposition in the queen stage. After great work from teammate Pavel Kochetkov, the Estonian turned out to be in a class of his own as he put 36 seconds into second-placed Jack Haig on the final climb.

 

After the surprisingly hard first stage, it was time for the queen stage which brought the riders over 217.7km between Nova Gorica and the Golte mountain. The first part was mainly flat, with just a single category 3 climb early in the stage, but then the climbing started at the midpoint with the category 1 Crni Vrh (11.9km, 5.7%). Another flat section led to the category 2 climb of Crnivec (17.5km, 4.2%) whose descent and a short flat section brought the riders to the final and hardest climb of the day. The category 1 mountain of Golte averaged 7.3% over 15.7km and had a maximum gradient of 23%.

 

It was nice weather when the riders gathered for the start and after a small mechanical for a Meridiana rider in the neutral zone, the flag was dropped a little delayed. There were lots of attacks in the first part and it briefly looked like a 10-rider group had gone clear. Instead, it was Gianfranco Zilioli (Nippo) who attacked just before the first intermediate sprint which he won before race leader Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE) beat Francesco Gavazzi (Androni) in the battle for second.

 

Zilioli was brought back and instead Iuri Filosi (Nippo) and Jan Tratnik (Amplatz) attacked at the 17km mark. While their gap went out to a minute, Jon Bozic (Adria Mobil) took off in pursuit but he hadn’t made the junction when Tratnik beat Bozic in the first KOM sprint after 22km of racing.

 

At the 27km mark, Bozic made the junction and so a trio had formed with an advantage of three minutes. Moments later, Filosi beat Bozic and Tratnik in the second intermediate sprint.

 

Adria Mobil took control in the peloton and kept the gap stable at around 3 minutes. That prompted Kenny De Ketele and Preben Van Hecke to try to bridge across and they quickly got an advantage of 1.20 over the peloton before Tratnik beat Filosi and Bozic in the third intermediate sprint.

 

Van Hecke and De Ketele made the junction after 58km of racing where the gap had gone out to 4.30. It stayed around that mark for a long time which gave Filosi plenty of time to rejoin the group after a mechanical.

 

The front group hit the first of the three big climbs with a 5-minute advantage. Bozic had to let his companions go three kilometres from the top and a little later De Ketele also lost contact where Van Hecke beat Tratnik, Filosi and De Ketele in the KOM sprint. Bozic held on to take fifth.

 

The peloton had gone fast up the climb and so the gap was down to 3.40 when Mario Schoibl (Amplatz) became the third rider to leave the race. De Ketele and Bozic joined forces but were already 1.30 behind and soon decided to wasit for the peloton.

 

When Filosi beat Tratnik and Van Hecke in the fourth intermediate sprint at the 129.6km mark, the gap had again gone out to five minutes but when they hit the second big climb, the lead had been reduced to four minutes. Here Nils Politt (Katusha) and Simone Sterbini (Bardiani) attacked but Politt was brought back before Tratnik beat Van Heck and Filosi in the KOM sprint. The peloton reached the top 3 minutes later.

 

Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Argon 18) crashed out of the race on the descent where the front trio looked like they had given up. Tratnik decided to sit up but Van Heck and Filosi gave it another go.

 

The peloton had been whittled down significantly when they hit the final 25km more than 3 minutes behind the leaders. Sterbini was still ahead of them while Tratnik was one minute behind the leaders. Tratnik and Sterbini joined forces 2.30 behind the leaders but as the peloton started to fight for position for the final climb, they were brought back.

 

As soon as they hit the climb, Filosi left Van Hecke behind but it was all in vain as the Italian was brought back. Instead, Rodolfo Torres (Androni) attacked with 9km to go and it was Domen Novak (Adria Mobil) and Nic Dougall (Dimesnion Data) who set off in pursuit. However, they were all brought back six kilometres from the top.

 

It was a gradual elimination and only 12 riders were left when they passed the 4km to go banner. That’s where Jack Haig (Orica-GreenEDGE) and the Katusha pair of Rein Taaramae and Pavel Kochetkov got a small advantage. The latter emptied himself for his teammate and then left it to Taaramae and Haig to press on.

 

The two leaders increased their advantage as Taaramae just kept riding on the front. Haig did his best to follow but just before the flamme rouge he had to surrender.  Taaramae pushed on to win the stage by 36 seconds while Egan Bernal was 14 seconds further adrift in third. Kochetkov took fourth and Jure Golcer (Adria Moil) was the best Slovenian in fifth.

 

With the win, Taaramae now leads Haig by 36 seconds. He faces another stern test tomorrow in the 16.8km time trial. The first 10km are for the powerful specialists but then the climbing hostilities start as the final 6.8km are almost all uphill. First there’s a 1.5km climb with a 16% section and then a short, flat section leads to a climb that averages 6.4%. The final part of the stage is a long, gradual rise.

MORE NEWS:

VIEW SELECTED

Bycykling 101: Navigering i byens gader og cykelvenlige... 27.11.2023 @ 12:11The Best Danish Cyclist To Bet On At 2022 Tour De France 13.01.2022 @ 15:262022 Upcoming Tournament Overview 03.01.2022 @ 09:45Best Place to Find Stand-Up Paddleboards 16.06.2021 @ 08:16What are Primoz Roglic’s Chances to Win 2021 Tour de Fr... 17.03.2021 @ 08:37Amazing victory by young champion Sarah Gigante 04.02.2021 @ 14:21Three reasons why cycling is one of the best ways to ex... 28.09.2020 @ 12:03Why do businesses use meeting room managers? 14.09.2020 @ 13:42Five things that you can do, if you want to gain more f... 20.08.2020 @ 15:38One for the road 09.06.2020 @ 15:25List of CyclingQuotes previews 07.05.2020 @ 13:20Blue Energy: room for all interests 26.08.2019 @ 12:56Get your daily dose of exercise at home 08.07.2019 @ 10:443 good advice to be able to afford your favorite bike 25.02.2019 @ 12:32Cycle through gorgeous landscapes 22.10.2018 @ 21:41Balance Your Economy and Diet and Start Saving Money 08.10.2018 @ 11:18Stay Safe: 3 Helmets That Can Keep Your Head Protected... 20.07.2018 @ 07:59Planning to bet on Tour De France - Bet types and strat... 24.05.2018 @ 14:18Basics of cycling betting 25.10.2017 @ 13:10Bauer moves to ORICA-SCOTT 28.08.2017 @ 10:45End of the road for CyclingQuotes 08.01.2017 @ 16:00Rui Costa confirms Giro participation 07.01.2017 @ 12:55Van Avermaet: I am not afraid of Sagan 07.01.2017 @ 09:45Unchanged course for E3 Harelbeke 07.01.2017 @ 09:32Jenner takes surprise win at Australian U23 Championships 07.01.2017 @ 08:53No replacement for Meersman at Fortuneo-Vital Concept 06.01.2017 @ 19:14Barguil with two goals in 2017 06.01.2017 @ 19:06More details about French Vuelta start emerges 06.01.2017 @ 14:16Kristoff to start season at Etoile de Besseges 06.01.2017 @ 14:10Ion Izagirre announces schedule for first year at Bahrain 06.01.2017 @ 12:40JLT Condor optimistic for Herald Sun Tour 06.01.2017 @ 09:19Haas leads Dimension Data trio in fight for Australian... 06.01.2017 @ 09:15Sagan spearheads Bora-hansgrohe at Tour Down Under 06.01.2017 @ 09:12Henao and Thomas lead Sky Down Under 06.01.2017 @ 09:09Bauer crowned New Zealand TT champion 06.01.2017 @ 08:33Van der Poel ready to defend Dutch title 05.01.2017 @ 21:00Pantano ambitious for first Tour with Trek 05.01.2017 @ 20:41Landa with new approach to the Giro 05.01.2017 @ 20:36Sunweb Development Team sign Goos and Zepuntke 05.01.2017 @ 20:27Dumoulin confirms Giro participation 05.01.2017 @ 20:19Bauer targets victories in Quick-Step debut 05.01.2017 @ 20:16Gaviria and Boonen lead Quick-Step in San Juan 05.01.2017 @ 20:13Team Sunweb presented in Germany 05.01.2017 @ 20:09ASO take over major German WorldTour race 05.01.2017 @ 11:01Team Sunweb unveil new jersey 05.01.2017 @ 10:54Reactions from the Australian TT Championships 05.01.2017 @ 08:27Dennis defends Australian TT title 05.01.2017 @ 08:21Scotson takes back to back U23 TT titles in Australia 05.01.2017 @ 08:15Utrecht on track to host 2020 Vuelta 04.01.2017 @ 18:28Pre-season setback for Talansky 04.01.2017 @ 17:56Kristoff: It's not impossible for me to win in Rou... 04.01.2017 @ 17:49Boom close to first cyclo-cross win in LottoNL debut 04.01.2017 @ 17:40UAE Abu Dhabi make late signing of Arab rider 04.01.2017 @ 17:36UAE Abu Dhabi unveil new jersey 04.01.2017 @ 17:30BMC unveil race schedule 04.01.2017 @ 17:21

Currently no news in this list

Joel JUNIOR
32 years | today
Maria CAZZOLA
37 years | today
Justino Borges RIBEIRO
45 years | today
Da Sri JUNG
32 years | today
Elisa LONGO BORGHINI
33 years | today

© CyclingQuotes.com