Mikel Nieve was narrowly denied his first Team Sky win of 2015 after being pipped to victory by Primoz Roglic on the penultimate stage at the Tour of Slovenia. Nieve led from the front as three riders emerged at the summit finish in Trije Kralji, but despite his best efforts, Roglic (Adria Mobil) passed him the last 50 metres and held on to triumph by less than a bike length.

Nieve defended his second place ahead of Radoslav Rogina (Adria Mobil), and Team Sky’s strength was further highlighted by points jersey holder Salvatore Puccio and Nathan Earle also claiming 12th and 16th positions respectively.

The result saw Nieve climb to second in the standings, where he trails new leader Roglic by five seconds heading into Sunday’s sprint-friendly finale. The queen stage had taken place under changeable weather conditions, with five riders taking advantage of a sunny start by slipping clear after 20km.

Rusvelo and Bardiani Valvoli initially held their lead at around four minutes, but had reeled the quintet back in by the time they hit the second of four categorised climbs. By then the weather had worsened, but that didn’t stop Francesco Gavazzi (SouthEast) trying his hand before he reached the summit, and the Italian was joined by Kristjan Fajt (Adria Mobil) as they entered the final hour of action.

The duo’s move ultimately proved fruitless, and both were caught as they commenced the last ascent of the day. Lampre-Merida thinned out the peloton as they pressed towards the summit, but only Nieve and Rogina could follow when Roglic made his first attack 4km from home. 

The Adria Mobil duo then tried all they could to distance Nieve in the closing stages, and despite a dogged defence of his position, the Basque rider held firm until Rodlic’s last-gasp kick for victory.

Sports Director Dario Cioni was pleased with his riders’ performance when TeamSky.com caught up with him after the stage, and maintained there is still plenty to fight for on Sunday. He told the site:

“Today was a key day for Mikel as he’s trying to make the Tour de France team, and he did a good job. Whenever you miss out on a stage victory by a small margin it’s always disappointing, but he can be pleased with how he rode.

“It was also good to see Salvatore and Nathan hang in there for as long as they did on that last climb. Salva still has the points jersey and will try to defend that tomorrow, but we also have options with CJ Sutton and Andy Fenn in the squad.

“We’re expecting a bunch sprint finish. There’s two pretty steep climbs coming halfway through the stage but everything should come back together on the circuits and we’ll do everything we can to end the race on a high.”