2018 Tour of Slovenia

[MarkW]

Mark Renshaw in D.Data Team, Tim Guy out of the LGX team for the 2018 Tour of Slovenia:

As expected Mark Renshaw will race with Mark Cavendish in the  Dimension Data Team, while Tim Guy will not be in the Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum team for the 2018 Tour of Slovenia after sickness in the lead up races in Italy.

The Team rosters are:
Dimension Data - Mark Cavendish, Mark Renshaw, Natnael Berhane, Johann Van Zyl, Jaco Venter, Amanuel Gebreigzabhier
Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum - Tadej Pogacar, Ziga Jerman, Ziga Rucigaj, Ben Hill, Izidor Penko, Matic Groselj, Tilen Finkst

The 2018 Tour of Slovenia starts with a couple of sprint stages to Murska Sobota on Day 1 and Rogaska Slatina on day 2, which is hilly than the first stage but a bunch sprint still expected. Tougher day on the 15th June to Celje, while stage 4 Kamnik is the toughest Stage of the tour before a TTT (20km) on the final day.     

[MarkW]

Day 1 Tour of Slovenia:
Big news for the Aussies and Tim Guys Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum Team was that Ben Hill was part of the breakaway of five riders on Day 1 of the Tour of Slovenia; the others in the break included Nik Cemazar, Jon Bozic, Juraj Bellan & Martin Haring.
Hill had a great day winning sprints and the Hill Climb to take the KOM Jersey and finish 5th in the Points Jersey.

Things where not so good for Bathurst Champ Mark Renshaw, with the sprint team catching the 5 leads all was set for the expected bunch sprint. However things where chaotic at the finish with 2 major crashes taking out all the high profile sprinters including Mark Renshaw who fell heavily.
Others to fall included Caleb Evan (Mitchelton-Scott) 1.5km from the finish while the Rafal Majka fall was closer still to the finish line.
 
The Stage went to UAE Team Emirates rider Simone Consonni who outsprinted Matteo Pelucchi and Niccolo Bonifazio.
The day even better for Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum with 3 riders in the top 10 in the Young Rider Classification (infact 4 in the top 12) lead by Jon Bozic who rode impressively on Day 1

Stage & Overall
1 Simone Consonni UAE Team Emirates, 2 Matteo Pelucchi Bora-Hansgrohe, 3 Niccolo Bonifazio Bahrain-Merida     
Dimension Data Riders – 14th Mark Cavendish, 134th Mark Renshaw

Mountain Classification
1st Benjamin Hill (Aus) Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum

Points classification
1 Simone Consonni UAE, 2 Matteo Pelucchi Bora, 3 Niccolo Bonifazio Bahrain-Merida, 4 Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) 5 Benjamin Hill (Aus) Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum.

See Video Summary here
https://www.facebook.com/LGXCyclingTeam/videos/394175197736104/

Website -- https://tourofslovenia.si/en

[MarkW]

Day 2 Tour of Slovenia:

What a Day for Ben Hill
Amazing Day for Tim Guy’s Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum Pro Cycling Team with Aussie Ben Hill moving to the overall lead in the Tour of Slovenia at the end of day 2.
As he did in Stage 1 (and every other race he does) Ben Hill when on the attack early picking up the time bonuses to take him to the overall lead in the 2018 Tour of Slovenia. 

The other good news for local area was that Bathurst Champion Mark Renshaw both started and finished (89th) stage 2 after his heavy fall yesterday.
Fellow NSW rider Caleb Ewan bouncing back after his fall yesterday to finish 3rd behind Dylan Groenewegen and Matteo Pelucchi.

Check out Ben Great attacking ride in this video
https://youtu.be/V1wW40wkNkQ

STAGE 2 Results
1 Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo)  2 Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-Hansgrohe) 3 Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott)
Others -- 6th Mark Cavendish, 27th Marcel Kittel, 81st Ben Hill, 89th Mark Renshaw

General Classification after day 2
Benjamin Hill (Aus) Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum 7:07:33   
2 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:03   
3 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:05

Points Classification - 1 Matteo Pelucchi 2 Simone Consonni 3 Dylan Groenewegen 4 Benjamin Hill 5 Caleb Ewan

Mountains Classification - 1 Benjamin Hill 2 Gasper Katrasnik 3 Vojtech Hacecky

[MarkW]

final day -

A Memorable 2018 Tour of Slovenia:

After a shaky start for both locals, with Mark Renshaw falling in Stage 1 and Tim Guy missing the race all together, things have worked out very well for the pair.

In fact Tim Guy as a Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum team sponsor couldn’t be happier -- with team mate Ben Hill wearing both the KOM and Overall Leaders jersey during the Tour - and then outstanding prospect Tadej Pogacar winning the Best Young Rider classification on the final day of competition and finishing an amazing 4th overall.

While things just got better each day for Local Champion Mark Renshaw.

He was to start 2 week of competition on day 1 of the Tour of Slovenia when he had the fall, in a mission to improve fitness for the Tour de France after a season full of setbacks. If the fall forced a withdrawal from the race his 2018 Tour de France Plans would of have been under threat, instead he has improved each day and now continues to build to the 2018 Tour de France at his next assignment the Adriatica Lonica Tour. (see link for More)

http://www.nswcycling.com/forum/index.php?topic=145.0

Final Jerseys RESULTS
General Classification: Primož Roglič (LottoNL-Jumbo)
Sprint Classification: Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates)
KOM Classification: Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec)
Young Rider Classification: Tadej Pogačar (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum)

See Final day Highlights Here - https://youtu.be/YHFxjJzzGcY