Tadej Pogacar won the Tour of Slovenia on Sunday, a warm-up for his Tour de France defence, while German Phil Bauhaus won the fifth and final stage into Novo Mesto.

“I've desired this win for a long time, and I'm overjoyed,” said Slovenian Pogacar, who rides for the UAE Team Emirates.

“My condition is fairly excellent; I will relax for a while, do a little more training, and then the Tour will begin,” he added, adding that it would be “certainly more challenging than last year.”

Pogacar, who finished 1min 23.31sec ahead of Italian teammate Diego Ulisse having raced his home circuit three times previously coming fifth in 2017, fourth in 2018, and fourth in 2019.

Following the Tour, which concludes on July 18, Pogacar intends to compete in the Olympic road race in Japan on July 24.

Carapaz shines in the Tour de Suisse: Richard Carapaz of Ecuador's Ineos Grenadiers team won the Tour de Suisse after local rider Gino Mader won the eighth and final stage on Sunday (Bahrain-Victorious).

Carapaz, who won the Giro d'Italia in 2019, finished sixth on the stage, which contained a hard climb 15 kilometers from the finish line.

The performance was enough for Ecuadorian to preserve his 17-second lead over Colombian Rigoberto Uran, his closest competitor in the yellow jersey battle.

The Ineos squad had worked hard as just a unit to keep the race together throughout the stage's broken start, and when the huge assaults arrived on the cobbled Gotthardpass, Carapaz seemed at ease as he closed down each move.

Eddie Dunbar put in a magnificent effort in support of his teammate in the final stages, keeping a high speed to keep attackers at bay before rejoining to support on the descent and final run-in.

Dunbar, who finished fourth on the stage and 12th altogether, stated, "The squad rode extremely well today." We had complete control over it from the outset. We arrived at the climb and rode our tempo, which turned out to be a fairly powerful tempo.

“The favorites were expected to assault, and they did. We were fortunate enough to be able to respond and take it home.  Richie is a deserving champion of this race, in my opinion. He's been proving all week that he's the best rider here, and he did it again today. It's another terrific day for the team.”

The victory comes on the heels of Ineos triumphs in the Giro d'Italia by Egan Bernal at the end of May and the Critérium de Dauphine by Richie Porte earlier in June.