From GP Slovenian Istria we bring home fourth place for Dominik Neuman and 20 UCI points

We approached GP Slovenian Istria (1.2) very aggressively. Martin Voltr featured in the early breakaway, and before the finale Piotr Pekala provoked a promising-looking escape. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, in which Dominik Neuman missed out on a podium place by a tyre's width, earning us 20 UCI points.

This year marked the 12th edition of the race, with the finish again centred in Izola. The route covered 165 km with 2,285 metres of elevation gain. The format consisted of 4 large circuits (approximately 33 km each) followed by 3 shorter ones (just under 9 km). The large circuit featured one longer climb of 3.6 km at 5.2%, while the smaller circuit — half of which ran through the town — included a 300-metre climb at 5.9%.

The start line featured 30 teams of 6 riders. Among them were 2 ProTeams — MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort and Solution Tech NIPPO Rali — 6 Club teams, and a majority of Continental squads, including Devo Bahrain–Victorious and XDS Astana. Nationality-wise, there were 56 Italians, 22 Slovenians, 22 Poles, and so on.

A total of 18 Czech riders were in the field — besides Martin Bárta, Albert Monti, Dominik Neuman, Filip Řeha and Martin Voltr on our team (with Piotr Pekala as the sixth), Czech riders also represented Kasper crypto4me, TUFO-Pardus Prostějov, and 3 further riders rode for foreign Continental teams.

There was plenty of attacking and chasing, but in the end it came down to a bunch sprint anyway. In the first part of the race a group of six went clear, with Martin Voltr among them. On the approach to the first of the short circuits, Piotr Pekala attacked, and was subsequently joined by two Italians — Zanini (XDS Astana Development) and Agostinacchio (Biesse–Carrera–Premac). Unfortunately, on one sharp left-hand corner Piotr's front wheel slipped out from under him, and he was out of the break.

Our riders played a major role in bringing the duo back 5 km from the finish. So it came down to a sprint. Dominik Neuman entered the final 100 metres from second position, but narrowly missed the podium at the line, finishing 4th as the best Czech rider. His placing was rewarded with 20 UCI points.

"A hard race — one long climb, mostly driven and controlled by MBH Bank. On the third ascent of the climb, Bahrain put the hammer down and the first significant selection happened. That's also where we caught the breakaway that included Martin Voltr. The guys worked brilliantly throughout the race — Piotr and Martin took care of reeling in the final break, so I could save myself for the sprint. I was riding well towards the front, so to avoid being boxed in I had to start my sprint more than 200 metres out. Winner Buratti was clearly the strongest; third place slipped away from me by a tyre's width. That's a shame, but given the level of competition I'm happy with the result. Thanks to the team for everything and to the guys for the work they put in," said Dominik Neuman.

Results are available on ProCyclingStats and Firstcycling.