The Queen stage of this year’s Cro Race lived up to its billing, covering 190km and featuring 3,780 metres of climbing. From the start in Rab, the pace was unrelenting as teams battled to form the breakaway, with WorldTour squads ultimately kept out. The Učka climb thinned the field, but all the favourites remained in contention, aware that the decisive moment would come on Skitača, 24.5km from the finish, a brutal 3.5km ascent averaging 10.6% with sections ramping up to 20%.

Edoardo Zambanini reflected on the final kilometres: “I felt good throughout the day. I stayed with the team and they supported me a lot. We tackled Skitača in a strong position. Jakob managed to get a gap 2–3 km from the top, but the Ineos rider (Magnus Sheffield) closed it and 14 of us came together. We weren’t working hard enough to bring back Brandon McNulty, who already had a minute on us. With 8 km to go I tried to go clear with two riders, hoping for some collaboration, but I ended up doing most of the work. On the last climb I gave everything I had to secure second place. McNulty really made the difference on the first part of Skitača, he was very strong today.”

Jakob Omrzel was also active in the front group and delivered a fine ride, finishing 7th, which was enough to move into the white jersey as the best young rider.

Sports Director Aart Vierhouten reflected: “It was a tough race today. After three fast stages, this was the climbing day, and it was always going to be decided in the finale. Already midway through, the long steady ascent of Učka split the peloton down to just 50 riders. From there, UAE set a fierce tempo into the first crossing of the finish line, 37km to go, which sparked the first attacks. Jakob Omrzel was present in the initial move of eight, but they were eventually caught.
The parcours was demanding, with constant switchbacks and technical descents leading into the first-category climb. We knew positioning would be crucial there, so Damiano, Fran and Vlad worked extremely hard to place Edoardo Zambanini, Max van der Meulen and Jakob Omrzel within the first 10 riders at the base. Jakob climbed strongly alongside Edoardo, but they just missed the decisive move when McNulty attacked. And when McNulty goes, he goes—he’s a time trial specialist and looked unbeatable today. Full credit to him.
After his move, two groups came together (14 riders). On the radio, we instructed our riders to stay calm, regroup and focus on second place, which would also mean second overall. They executed the plan perfectly. In the final 8km, Edoardo attacked with Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma). Unfortunately, they didn’t want to contribute, so Edoardo had to do most of the work to keep the gap, while Jakob supported from behind. McNulty was out of reach, but we fought for and secured the best possible result.
Edoardo finished an excellent 2nd, and Jakob won the sprint for 6th. With Zambanini now 2nd overall and Omrzel 7th, having two riders in the top 10 is a fantastic result for the team. I also want to highlight Max’s performance, he rode a superb race to finish 17th, just missing out on the front group. Overall, the whole team can be proud of today.”