Phil Bauhaus victorious in crash-marred sprint on stage 2 of Tour of Slovenia 2024

Phil Bauhaus has survived a tough day in the saddle to take the win from a messy and crash marred sprint on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour of Slovenia.

Five riders forced their selection in the breakaway with some well known names amongst them too. Connor Swift of the INEOS Grenadiers, Antonio Morgado of UAE Team Emirates, Mikkel Honore of EF Education-EasyPost, Martin Marcellusi of VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè and Pau Miguel of Equipo Kern Pharma making up the lead group. The number of leaders was soon down to four however, after Morgado crashed. 

Although there was a flat finale to the day, the key for the sprinters was a second category climb half way through the stage. Some of the fast men were indeed dropped on the climb, including overall race leader Dylan Groenewegen. With around 80km from the foot of the descent to the finish line however, there was time for it all to come back together.

Sadly for those up front, Marcellusi was the victim of a mechanical and on a pacey descent, Miguel went off road into a vineyard. Although Swift and Honore lasted a little longer out ahead of the bunch, with 7.5km to go, Swift was swept up by the peloton leaving just Honore remaining out front. In the group behind meanwhile, a number of sprinters such Alexander Kristoff, Orluis Aular and Phil Bauhaus among others were showing their faces at the front.

Honore lasted until just over 2 kilometres to go, but once he was caught, the counter attackers came, not wanting to wait for a sprint. Honore's teammate, Ben Healy had the peloton worried but Bahrain - Victorious were controlling well at the front. In a messy sprint, a number of riders were brought to the deck but in the finale it was a very close run thing between Phil Bauhaus and Alberto Dainese.