Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was set to celebrate his first career victory Thursday as the first rider across the line on stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia, however, he was later relegated to sixth place and Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) took the top step of the podium.
Officials reviewed the sprint finish and deemed Oliveira veered dangerously to his left, hindering Christen's move next to the barriers. Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) moved to second place on the stage and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) found the podium in third.
A seven-rider breakaway escaped 20km from the end of the 163km stage and made it into Rogaška Slatina to contest the sprint. Q36.5's Sjoerd Bax lead out Christen for the front six riders to battle in the sprint.
Christen had earlier been in the break of the day, then a late attack was spearheaded by Bax, who was joined in the move by the podium trio plus Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Jakob Ormzel (Bahrain Victorious) as they sought to prevent a predicted mass sprint finish.
The group proved sufficiently strong and coordinated to fend off the chase from behind, growing their gap to almost a minute on the run to the line before battling for the win amongst themselves.
Christen is the new leader of the race, having picked up an additional time bonus on the stage in addition to a nine-second time bonus won on stage 1. The 22-year-old Swiss rider, who started the day in second overall, now leads Oliveira by 11 seconds, while Johannessen lies in third overall at 14 seconds down.
The Tour of Slovenia continues on Friday with a 172km stage from Majšperk to Ormož, a day suited to the sprinters, ahead of a summit finish GC showdown on Saturday.
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