Johannessen rides into history in Tour of Slovenia

The Norwegian Uno-X Mobility rider Anders Halland Johannessen won the 31st Tour of Slovenia for his first ever pro career victory as Portuguese Ivo Oliveira (UAE Emirates-XRG) took the bunch sprint of the final 124 km undulating stage from Litija to Novo Mesto.

The 25-year Norwegian claimed the leader's green jersey on the penultimate day, finishing third in the queen stage up the Golte plateau to beat other general classification contenders, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

On the final day, he crossed the finish line in a bunch who battled it out for the sprint finish victory in Novo Mesto after catching up with Juanpe Lopez (Lidl-Trek), the final remnant of the early break, with a good kilometre to go.

"It's great to have finished the work the guys did yesterday. I don't know where my team got the strength to hold on and take me to overall victory. It's been a great week, it's my first win in professional racing and it's really a victory for the whole team," Johannessen said after the five-day race.

The strongest rider of the day was Ivo Oliveira, the twin brother of Rui Oliveira, who missed out on victory in stage 2 after being relegated to sixth for what officials saw as veering dangerously in the sprint finish to hinder the eventual stage winner Fabio Christen.

"It wasn't easy at all. All this stage was really chaotic, really hard from the beginning. I didn't survive the last steep climb, but I came back on the descent. Once I came back, Felix (Grossschartner) paced for me to catch Juanpe," said Oliveira.

"I like to sprint from far, and this corner to the bridge was key. I knew if I went long, it's super hard to catch me. I kept looking behind because I didn't know how close they were, and man, I'm super happy," the 28-year-old added.

Oliveira's teammate, Austrian Felix Grossschartner finished second in the general classification, 14 seconds adrift and Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) was third, 19 seconds behind.

Slovenia's Bahrain-Victorious rider Jakob Omrzel finished the race fourth overall, claiming the white jersey of the best young rider to match the feat Tadej Pogačar achieved in 2018 and 2019. He won the white as well as finished fourth overall both times.

"It's a very good feeling to win the white jersey, it was something expected, but I'm very proud. Fourth is an unlucky place in a way. I was a bit short of the podium, but we'll come back even stronger next year and go not only for the white jersey, but also for the green one," said Omrzel, the 19-year-old Novo Mesto native.

Switzerland's Fabio Christen (Q36.5) took the blue jersey of the best mountain climber as well as the red jersey as the points classification winner.

Another hero of the race, Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) won two stages at the 2025 Tour of Slovenia to match the record of seven stage wins in this multi-day race. He was victorious in sprint finishes in stages 1 and 3.

Ukrainian rider Kyrylo Tsarenko (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) won the mountain stage up the steep 14 km climb to Golte on day 4.