Andrea Guardini wins third stage and Diego Ulissi takes overall lead in 2011 Tour of Slovenia
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli team’s Andrea Guardini won the mass sprint of the third stage of 2011 Tour of Slovenia on Sunday, June 19. Diego Ulissi retained his overall leader’s jersey.
The race started in Ptuj and ended in Novo mesto. The 22-year-old, Italian rider took a total of 4 hours, 21 minutes and 17 seconds to cover the distance of 181 kilometres.
Recently, Andrea won the fifth stage of Tour de Langkawi and fifth stage of Tour of Qatar. He also took third spot in the sixth stage of Tour of Oman.
Jacopo Guarnieri of Liquigas-Cannondale was the runner-up and Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-ISD was in the third spot with the same timing of Italian. Jens Keukeleire of Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne was in the fourth spot.
Nicki Sorensen of Saxo Bank Sungard tried his best to catch the other 22 cyclists, but he failed and took 23rd spot with the difference of 5 seconds. André Steensen of the Saxo Bank Sungard team took the 40th spot.
The three cyclists from Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli team Roberto De Patre, Oscar Gatto and Giovanni Visconti were disqualified from the race.
A group of three cyclists Andrej Omulec of Loborika Favorit, Sander Armee of Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator, Marcel Wyss of Geox-TMC made their first breakaway.
All of them built an advantage of two minutes over the peloton, but Andrej Omulec maintained his pace and won the first and the second sprint of the stage, ahead of Marcel and Sander.
In the third sprint, Sander Armee launched attacked, but failed and Marcel Wyss won the third sprint with 5 points.
Sander Armee of Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator won the first two climbs, ahead of Andrej and Marcel. However Diego Ulissi took the overall King of Mountain title, ahead of Grega Bole and Radoslav Rogina.
Diego Ulissi of the Lampre – ISD team took the overall standing with a timing of 13 hours, 42 minutes and 46 seconds. Radoslav Rogina of Loborika Favorit was the runner-up with 36 seconds behind Italian.
Robert Vrecer of Perutnina Ptuj finished third with a difference of 43 seconds, while the stage winner, Andrea, grabbed the 91th spot with a difference of 29 minutes and 36 seconds.
Points classification:
1. Kristijan Koren (Slo) Liquigas-Cannondale 44 points
2. Robert Vrecer (Slo) Perutnina Ptuj 39 points
3. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - ISD 35 points
Tags: