Double finishes the Tour of Slovenia with a charge and takes 6th place in the GC

Team Polti Kometa‘s goal in the final stage of the Tour of Slovenia was to improve its overall standings as much as possible: mission accomplished!

In the first part of the route towards Novo Mesto a breakaway of fifteen riders formed, destined to break up on the two challenging walls of the day. On the first one, 44 km from the finish, the key moment of the race occurred: Paul Double attacked together with Ben Healy, later being joined by some counter-attackers during the subsequent descent and flat section.

On the Trška Gora, the Irishman from EF went on to take the solo victory (Aleotti from BORA defended his overall win) while the English climber from Polti Kometa stayed in the front ranks of the main peloton, crossing the line in 13th place and gaining one position in the GC, finishing in 6th place. It was a great recovery from those seconds lost due to bad luck on the first raceday that prevented him from fighting for the podium.

Double: “This long-range attempt wasn’t planned, but when I saw certain names moving I wanted to join them. When we saw that the leader’s team was conducting a strong chase, I thought it was better to conserve energy and hold on the last climb. That’s how it went and I followed up on yesterday’s great performance. Healy pulled off an incredible feat, but by arriving with the group just six seconds behind him I managed to stay ahead of him in the GC.”

Sports director Jesús Hernández: “This was the highest-level Tour of Slovenia we’ve participated in, so we’re happy to have secured a top-10 finish once again. Today Paul launched into a move that saw him ride for many kilometers on par with opponents like Healy, Bilbao and Narvaez. Let’s not forget the beginning of the race, where we positioned ourselves well in the two sprints with Lonardi.”