Ulissi takes control at Tour of Slovenia

UAE Team Emirates continued to dominate at the Tour of Slovenia after the queen stage, 153.9 km from Nova Gorica to Ajdovscina.

Four climbs faced the riders: two 4th category, followed in rapid succession by the ascent of Medvedje Brdo (3rd cat with 42 km remaining) and the ascent of Dole (2nd category, coming with 20.4 km to go) .

Diego Ulissi and Tadej Pogačar showed their strength together with Vlasov (Gazprom) and Visconti (Neri-Selle Italia-Ktm), as the quartet moved away on the challenging ramps of the last ascent.

This group stayed together to the finish with Visconti just proving the quickest ahead of Ulissi and Pogačar who rounded out the podium.

With only one stage to run (Trebnie-Novo Mesto, 167.5 km with two 3rd-cat climbs), Ulissi has consolidated its leadership in the general classification (+22 “on Visconti) and has also jumped to the lead of the points classification.

Pogačar remains leader of the young riders classification and UAE Team Emirates dominate the team ranking.

Ulissi after the finish line: “I felt good on the climbs and thanks to Tadej’s support, we controlled the situation in the leading quartet.

We knew that Visconti was the fastest, we tried to do our best to win another way but we didn’t pull it off.

We only need one more day to take the Tour of Slovenia home, so we will keep the concentration high”.

Pogačar: “The race went well for UAE Team Emirates on the last climb, then, as the finish line approached, I tried to launch the sprint for Diego, but Visconti was quicker”.

Stage 4 results

1 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Neri-Selle Italia-Ktm 4h00’53 ”

2 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates s.t.

3 Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates s.t.

General ranking after stage 4

1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 15h39’28”

2 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Neri-Selle Italia-Ktm 22 ”

3 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom 25 ”

4 Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 30 “