The days follow one another, and unfortunately, look alike for Paul Penhoët and the Groupama-FDJ cycling team. Stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia didn’t prove more successful than the first one for the French sprinter and his teammates. Although he was there to compete in the final sprint, Paul Penhoët suffered another crash, just 500 metres from the finish. He was therefore unable to defend his chances, and Cyril Barthe then battled to secure seventeenth place. A hillier terrain awaits the riders on Friday.
With nearly 2,500 metres of elevation gain spread over the 178 kilometres of the route, the second stage did not promise to be the easiest for the sprinters wishing to fight for victory in Rogaška Slatina. At the start, Dylan Hopkins (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), Mario Gamper (Santic-Wibatech), Nicolas Gojkovic (Adria Mobil), Tomas Kalojiros (Pierre Baguette Cycling), Davide Baldaccini (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Marcel Skok (Adria Mobil) first established the day’s breakaway and got up to five minutes in the lead. However, their gap reduced drastically after some 90 kilometres. “We went up a hard climb at the middle of the race race, and it was for sure difficult,” explained William Green. “There were attacks towards the top, EF Education-EasyPost and Bahrain-Victorious really pushed the pace, then five riders went clear for the second part of the race.”
“We remain positive”, William Green
From then on Antonio Morgado (UAE Emirates), Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Mikkel Honoré (EF Education EasyPost), Pau Miquel (Equipio Kern Pharma) and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF- Faizane) were the ones leading the race. “After the climb, some sprinters like Welsford and Groenewegen weren’t there, they quickly lost a minute, then Tudor and Bahrain-Victorious rode hard to keep them behind,” added William. “It was a difficult second part of the race, with a lot of small, technical roads and with some sharp climbs.” Within a peloton of around 80 riders, Groupama-FDJ still had five men including their sprinter Paul Penhoët. Despite new attacks in the hilly final, the pack came back all together and caught Honoré, the last fugitive of the day. “We were in an ok position for the final,” said William. “Paul was not in a bad position, unfortunately he got squeezed in the last kilometre and had quite a bad crash.”
With 400 metres remaining, the Groupama-FDJ sprinter found himself on the ground while Phil Bauhaus claimed victory. “For sure Paul is disappointed, but he’s not too bad physically,” added William. “He’s lost some skin, but he should be ok for tomorrow. The rest of the team is in good condition and good spirit. We still have three stages to go, we remain positive, and we will still be active.” On Friday, the sprinters might struggle much more, due to a six-kilometre climb averaging 6% with ten kilometers to go. “It will be interesting, perhaps a select group at the finish,” concluded William. “It will be aggressive for sure, with a difficult start to the stage as well.”
