Pello Bilbao won the queen stage of Tour of Slovenia after his teammates from Bahrain-Victorious paced on the final climb. The battle for the stage win was fierce with British climber Paul Double being active, but the more experienced climber Bilbao was faster in the small group sprint.
Without Tadej Pogačar or Primož Roglič on the startlist there was no big favourite for this year’s Tour of Slovenia, which meant multiple riders could win the queen stage on the Krvavec climb (8.1 km, 8.79%). The stage was long but raced at low intensity, Uno-X Mobility climber Tobias Halland Johannessen spent 2,404 kilojoules before the climb for 5:04h with 11.57 kj/kg/h.
The steep part of the climb ended with 4 km to go, which meant it would be hard to get a gap in the GC group before the final steep pinch. The Bahrain-Victorious team were pacing for their leader Pello Bilbao, who finished 3rd in the UAE Tour and 6th in Basque Country in 2024 and was one of the strongest climbers on the startlist. Bilbao started pulling with 4.5 km to go after his teammate Edoardo Zambanini was done. The pace was high enough to drop Jhonatan Narvaez and Ben Healy, but the group remained quite big on the top of the steep segment.
Pello Bilbao did 6.06 ᵉW/Kg for 24:54 min on the Krvavecem climb. Giovanni Aleotti, Domenico Pozzovivo, Paul Double, Steff Cras and Pablo Castrillo lost only a few seconds at the top, averaging 6.01 – 6.03 ᵉW/Kg. The performances were not the best compared to other races, despite the UAE, INEOS, Bahrain, Bora-Hangrohe and other World Tour teams bringing a decent start list.
In the end, Bilbao won the stage on the last steep part with his strong sprint. 27-year-old Paul Double was close to his first pro victory but finished second, despite attacking from the first group at the end. Double was not selected for the Polti Kometa Giro d’Italia team but his performances in Giro d’Abruzzo, Tour of Turkey and Tour of Slovenia should attract WorldTour team interest for 2025. Italians Aleotti, Pellizzari and Pozzovivo finished from 3rd to 5th position.
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