UAE Team Emirates-XRG gear up for Tour of Slovenia

Returning to the race it has won on three occasions, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will head to the Tour of Slovenia with plenty of options to race on the front foot. The five-day stage race will see the peloton trade blows across Slovenia’s green landscape, before deciding the overall victory with a summit finish at the Golte Ski Resort and the traditional final stage to Novo Mesto.

It is a race where UAE Team Emirates-XRG have enjoyed a successful recent history, with Diego Ulissi picking up the title in 2019 and Tadej Pogačar winning his home race in 2021 and 2022.

Alongside Ulissi’s third-place finish in 2023, the Emirati squad have picked up eight stage wins along the way, including Rafał Majka’s memorable victory in 2022 that saw the Polish rider come to the line alongside the winner-in-waiting, Pogačar.

As they return to the UCI 2.Pro event, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will be led by the experienced Felix Großschartner, who has recently put pen to paper on a two-year contract extension. The Austrian will be making his debut at the Tour of Slovenia, but comes to the race having helped João Almeida win the Tour de Romandie last month.

Großschartner: “As a team, we’re all quite excited to be coming to the Tour of Slovenia. We won the title here with Tadej in the past, and it would be nice to repeat that.

“Personally, it’s my first time at the race and I’m looking forward to it. My shape is good building up to the Tour of Austria and this race is an important step in that process.

“As one of the bigger teams, we’ll aim to control the race and be aggressive. It’s always a hard, hilly parcours, so we will be ready for the fight.”

Alongside Großschartner, the Italian Alessandro Covi will offer UAE Team Emirates-XRG another option when the road goes uphill. The Italian has been enjoying the best season of his career to date, winning stages at the Giro d’Abruzzo and the Vuelta Asturias, before finishing runner-up at the Tour de Hongrie and impressing once more at the Tour of Norway.

Also making the trip direct from Scandinavia to Central Europe will be Sebastián Molano and Rui Oliveira, both of whom can leave their impression on a number of stages. Rui will be joined by his twin brother Ivo, with Rune Herregodts and António Morgado rounding out a strong seven-man squad for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

The riders will be led from the team car by Sports Directors Yousif Mirza and former Slovenian professional, Jan Polanc. The man from Kranj memorably picked up UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s first-ever Grand Tour stage win on Mount Etna during the 2017 Giro d’Italia.

Polanc’s local knowledge will be vital as the Emirati squad takes on a challenging five-day route across the green, rolling hills of Slovenia. Stage 1, on Wednesday 4 June, should almost certainly fall to the sprinters, but from there on out, the race is wide open for aggressive racing.

From Velenje to Rogaška Slatina, stage 2 packs in a series of small, steep climbs, before stage 3 includes a category 4 climb just 15km from the finish in Ormož.

The Queen stage of this year’s Tour of Slovenia will take the riders from Maribor to the summit finish atop the Golte Ski Resort. With over 3,000m of climbing on the menu, it will be an integral day for the general classification hopefuls, and the last climb will certainly leave its mark for 13.5km at 7.5%.

The final 6.2km of the climb are the most challenging, with an average gradient of 9.5%. This will be the first time that the Tour of Slovenia has visited these tough slopes since the 2016 edition, where an entertaining contest produced a star-studded podium of Rein Taaramäe, Jack Haig and Egan Bernal.

To round out the week’s action, a short but hilly stage will see the peloton tackle five categorised climbs between Litija and Novo Mesto on Sunday. The last climb to Trška Gora will extend for 1.7km at 9.8%, offering one final launchpad to flip the script on this year’s edition. Three years ago, it was Pogačar who reigned supreme in Novo Mesto to claim his second stage victory of the race and secure his second overall title.