Ukraine's Kyrylo Tsarenko (Solution Tech - Vini Fantini) claimed the biggest win of his life on stage 4 of the Tour of Slovenia, surviving a brutal day in the early breakaway to conquer the climb to Golte.
Also a member of the early move of six, who got away and built a big lead out of the stage start in Maribor, Samuele Zoccarato (Polti VisitMalta) finished second up the stinging, steep 13km climb, just 28 seconds behind Tsarenko at the line.
The battle for the overall lead played out in the group of favourites further down the climb, with Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) coming out on top ahead of Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to finish 38 seconds after the Ukrainian.
Tsarenko has shown signs of such a performance by winning the 2.pro Tour of Hainan overall and a stage last season, but against WorldTour opposition in Europe, he found a new peak on Saturday.
With pre-stage leader Fabio Christen (Q36.5) dropping on the final climb, Johannessen moved into the overall lead of the race, with a 16-second advantage over Großschartner heading into the final stage on Sunday. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) sits third overall, 19 seconds back.
Racing will conclude at the 2025 Tour of Slovenia across a 124-kilometre undulating stage from Litija to Novo mesto, which should see several attacks and a tricky day for Uno-X Mobility to control.
Results
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