Matej Mohoric wins overall at CRO Race

After kicking off the race with two stage wins by Jonathan Milan, Team Bahrain Victorious continued to ride brilliantly at the CRO Race. The team scored at least one podium result in each of the following four stages, and in the end, Matej Mohoric crowned the team's strong performance by winning the overall of the race, thanks to bonification seconds gathered throughout the conclusive stage.

The 7th edition of the CRO Race had seen a perfect start from the perspective of Team Bahrain Victorious. The opening stage ended with the first professional victory on the road for Jonathan Milan, and the young Italian doubled up one day later, winning another sprint. Against all expectations, Milan also showed a highly courageous race in the finale of stage 3, leading a thinned-out peloton onto the unpaved gravel sectors in the conclusion up to the finish in Primosten and even attacking with 500 meters to go. The counter of Jonas Vingegaard and Oscar Onley proved too much for Milan; however, he only lost 9 seconds on the way to the finish, crossing the line 9 seconds later than the stage winner and thus holding on to the overall lead by a scant second. With Matej Mohoric crossing the finish line in 3rd, Team Bahrain Victorious celebrated another podium result.

The finale of stage 4 featured a tricky circuit around the town of Crikvenica. The day's early attackers were brought back well in time, but then the rain set in, making for even more treacherous conditions on the local circuit. Matej Mohoric took the responsibility of guiding his young teammate around the slippery corners while neutralising any late attempts to attack. As a rider right in front of him went down in the last hairpin bend, Jonathan Milan lost a couple of positions. As a consequence, he could "only" move up to 2nd in the sprint for the line, with Matej Mohoric crossing the line in 3rd. Thanks to the bonifications won at the intermediate sprint and at the finish, Milan managed to extend his lead in the overall standings to 10 seconds again, but that should prove to have been meaningless the day after.

The penultimate stage of the CRO Race served up almost 3000 meters of aggregate climbing on just 154 kilometres, with the Poklon as the longest and hardest climb of the entire race coming pretty early. It was here where Jonathan Milan got dropped, and despite the efforts of Hermann Pernsteiner and Damiano Caruso he could not make it back to the first group on the road. Flying the colours of Team Bahrain Victorious instead were Matej Mohoric and Santiago Buitrago. The uphill finish of the stage saw the same podium result as two days earlier at Primosten: Vingegaard beat Onley for the stage win, with Matej Mohoric in 3rd at 2 seconds. This put him in 2nd in the overall standings before the conclusive stage, just 8 seconds adrift from the race leader. At the first intermediate sprint of the last stage, Mohoric managed to secure 3 seconds bonification thanks to an excellent lead out by Jonathan Milan.

Thus Mohoric was only 5 seconds away from the overall leader, with 10, 6 and 4 seconds waiting as bonifications on the finish line in Zagreb for the top 3 riders. From there, Team Bahrain Victorious worked hard to get back to the day's breakaway. Once the race hit the twisting and turning finishing circuit in Zagreb, the riders in red, orange and black gave it all to isolate overall leader Vingegaard. They succeeded in doing so, and while Matej Mohoric could not match the pace of Elia Viviani in the sprint for the stage win, Jonathan Milan launched the sprint of his teammate perfectly to see him cross the line in 2nd. Thus Mohoric managed to squeeze past Vingegaard on GC by a scant second, winning the CRO Race's overall standings. But that's not all as Jonathan Milan, and Matej Mohoric finished the points' standings in 1st and 2nd respectively, and the team also came in 2nd in the team classification.

 «On paper, it seemed impossible to pry the leader's jersey from Vingegaard's shoulders. But we had a plan, and we made it work», a more than happy Matej Mohoric said at the finish in Zagreb. «This race was one of my main targets for this season. So I am very happy that I could reach that target and win the race.» 

7TH CRO RACE, STAGE 3: SINJ - PRIMOSTEN, 157KM
1. Jonas Vingegaard, DEN, in 3:31.28 hours
2. Oscar Onley, GBR, st
3. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.02

STAGE 4: BIOGRAD NA MORU - CRIKVENICA, 219KM
1. Axel Laurance, FRA, in 5:04.31 hours
2. Jonathan Milan, ITA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, st
3. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, st

STAGE 5: OPATIJA - LABIN, 154KM
1. Jonas Vingegaard, DEN, in 3:46.04 hours
2. Oscar Onley, GBR, st
3. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.02

STAGE 6: SVETA NEDELJA - ZAGREB, 158KM
1. Elia Viviani, ITA, in 3:15.51 hours
2. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, st
3. Vincenzo Albanese, ITA, st

FINAL OVERALL STANDINGS:
1. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 24:54.05 hours
2. Jonas Vingegaard, DEN, + 0.01
3. Oscar Onley, GBR, + 0.11

POINTS CLASSIFICATION:
1. Jonathan Milan, ITA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, 98 points
2. Matej Mohoric, SVN/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, 88 points
3. Axel Laurance, FRA, 58 points

TEAM CLASSIFICATION:
1. Ineos Grenadiers, GBR, in 74:48.19 hours
2. TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, BHR, + 6.13
3. Caja Rural Seguros RGA, ESP, + 7.44