After five days of battle, the Tour of Slovakia ended this Sunday with the 5th stage and “queen stage” between Liptovsky Mikulas – Strbské Pleso (142 km). And at the top of the Strbské Pleso climb (10km at 4.5%) it is Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) who won. At the end of a suspenseful finale, on a difficult but not very steep climb, the German managed to escape from the group of favorites to win this last stage. Perfect day for Jayco AlUla with the victory of Mauro Schmid in the general classification.
Julian Alaphilippe finished 2nd in the general classification
Schmid: “Felix’s attack was perfect for me”
Mauro Schmidthe former teammate of Julian Alaphilippe, spoke via a press release from his team: “It’s great to be able to win this race. We had a super strong team here in Slovakia and we kept it under control throughout the stage. I just had to follow Julian’s attacks on the last climb to keep the yellow. And then with Félix’s attack it was also perfect for me. It was the best way to end the week.”
Felix Engelhardt also spoke about his victory: “The plan was to isolate Alaphilippe as much as possible on the climb and for Mauro to just stay on his wheel and try to sprint past him in the final. I attacked a few times in the last four or five kilometres. Then, with 1.2 kilometres to go, it was a really good opportunity. He (Alaphilippe) turned around, and I just went from behind. He couldn’t follow anymore and luckily I had the legs to do it and then Mauro beat him in the sprint. It was perfect for us.”
