Luka Mezgec (Orica-Scott) claimed victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia, winning by a clear margin after crashes disrupted the final couple of kilometres in rainy Ljubljana.
The wet roads made the pair of 90-degree left-hand bends treacherous, and race leader Sam Bennett's Bora-Hansgrohe lead-out man slid out just shy of the flamme rouge. A couple of hundred metres later Bennett himself went down, hitting the deck with Mark Cavendish and a number of other riders.
Mezgec was leading, and took a look around before accelerating from long-range. Cavendish's lead-out man Mark Renshaw was sitting in second wheel but couldn't respond, with Roberto Ferrari coming through to take second place. Mezgec takes over atop the general classification as a result of his stage win.
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“I am really, really happy,” Mezgec said. “We came so close yesterday to starting the race with a win and I’m overjoyed to have been able to get there today. It was a nervy finale with the slippery roads and crashes, but the boys were fantastic, they kept me at the front and out of trouble and then all I had to do was give it everything to the line.”
The stage was animated by a seven-man move featuring Andrea Vendrame (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia), Anton Vorobyev (Gazprom–RusVelo), Ivan Santaromita (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Gorazd Per (Adria Mobil), Enrico Salvador (Tirol Cycling Team), Tomaš Buchaček (Elekov-Author Cycling Team) and Bruno Maltar (Meridiana Kamen). The septet established a maximum lead of five minutes before Orica-Scott set about pegging them back. Santaromita, Per, Salvador and Buchacek were the final survivors, but they were swept up 15 kilometres from the finish in rain-soaked Ljubljana.
In the overall standings, Mezgec holds a lead of four seconds over stage 1 winner Sam Bennett. “It is my first win of the season and I’m very proud to have taken the victory here in the capital of my home country," Mezgec said. "It’s very special and it will be an honour for me to wear the race leader's jersey tomorrow.”
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