Absolutely flat stage on Saturday started in Vráble and was animated by the five-man group up the road. Today it was turn of Martin Jurík (Pierre Baguette), Oscar Nilsson-Julien (Groupama-FDJ Development), Tim Marsman (VolkerWessels), Matic Žumer (Adria Mobil) and Rick Ottema (Diftar) to fight in the break.
There were no KOM sprints on the route today, only two intermediate sprints. One was won by Oscar Nilsson-Julien, the other by Martin Jurík. However, Soudal Quick-Step did not allow for the break to get a huge gap and the Belgian squad managed to reel the escapees back long before the finish in Sládkovičovo.
Calm final of the stage was slightly compromised by the mas pile-up in the peloton. Home team Pierre Baguette had a lot of bad luck, as two of their riders, Jan Lukaš and Daniel Mlejnek, crashed heavily and needed medical attention.
Bunch sprint looked similarly as in last three days. Soudal Quick-Step dominated the final and brought Paul Magnier to yet another victory ahead Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets). For the fourth time in a row we had the same winner and runner-up in this edition of Okolo Slovenska. Podium was completed with Milan Menten of team Lotto.
In the presence of Slovak cycling legend Peter Sagan, Paul Magnier once again collected his yellow, green and white jerseys. Kubiš extended his lead in the Best Slovak rider classification, while KOM jersey will still belong to Martin Voltr (ATT Investments). Martin Jurík was awarded with the prize of the most combative rider of the day on Saturday.
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