Elia Viviani takes sprint win on stage 1 of the CRO Race as last year's winner Mohoric loses time after late crash

Elia Viviani of the INEOS Grenadiers has taken victory on stage 1 of the 2023 CRO Race after a frantic bunch sprint to the line.

After five riders managed to make it into the breakaway of the day, the peloton had successfully reeled them all in the time the race reached 20km to go and from there, a bunch sprint finale was inevitable.

After last year's overall winner Matej Mohoric was caught in a late crash, the Slovenian faced a frantic battle to chase back on with 6km to go. In the finale, Elia Viviani was the first to open his sprint and on the throw took a narrow victory ahead of Tobias Lund Andresen and Alexander Kristoff.