Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) lived up to the billing and narrowly held off Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to take victory on stage 1 of the CRO Race, outsprinting the Dutchman and the bunch to the line in Sinj.
Polti VisitMalta led things round the final bend with 250 metres to go, with pre-stage favourites Magnier, Van Poppel and Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) all in contention and ready to strike, but once the Frenchman hit the front and opened up fully, no one could come around him.
Van Poppel was second by half a bike length, with Oded Kogut (Israel-Premier Tech) in third, Giovanni Lonardi (Polti VisitMalta) fourth – having got detached from his lead-out –and Turner in fifth.
This is Magnier's sixth win from his past seven races, after a dominant week at the Tour of Slovakia, where he won four of the five stages, and, still only his second year racing at the WorldTour level, his 16th professional victory already.
Magnier wasn't guided perfectly into the finale of stage 1, which started in Split and headed northeast inland, but Soudal-QuickStep did get him into fighting position and with room to launch his sprint, after contributing heavily to bringing back the last remnants of the early breakaway with 3.5km to go.
"It's super nice [to win]. Last month I got a lot of victories in a row. Also, from a super big job by the team," said Magnier, who gave great credit to his new lead-out man, Dries van Gestel.
"Again today, I can really thank them. We did a lot of good work in Slovakia, so we really trained a lot with van Gestel to get a nice lead-out, and he was amazing again today, so I'm really happy. We are really confident together, and I hope it will continue.
"I will enjoy tonight first, with this first victory, and then we will see tomorrow. It depends on the wind and also the last two climbs, but the legs are good, and I hope I will have as many opportunities as possible here."
Action at the CRO Race continues on Wednesday, with a punchy 114.5-kilometre stage, heading from Biograd na Moru to Novalja, where two climbs in the second half of the route could see action kick off.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
