EXCELLENT DISPLAY 🙌 ｜ 2025 Tour of Slovakia Stage 1 Final KM’s ｜ TNT Sports Cycling

Former winner of this race overall from 2019. He now drives on. I'm not sure whether he knows whether they've got air. This he's now, this is him starting the lead out. And in a way Yves Lampa has to do that because that's the flamme rouge. Final kilometre. Where is Paul Manier? They've done everything they can to try and have this under control but they have not got it under control. There he is. Paul Manier now on the back wheel of Vyzas Vercek. No, it's Dries van Gastel. Dries van Gastel brings him up on the right-hand side of the road. It does appear like they might just be getting it under control. So Paul Manier is the third of those Soudal quick-step riders and he's got on his wheel Lukáš Kubič, the Slovak champion with the white helmet, the blue and red very easily spotted jersey on the right-hand side. But they haven't got him quite where they need him just yet. Dries van Gastel looks like he's going to be the last man to go. Yes, van Gastel has got Paul Manier on his wheel. They're on the right-hand side of the shot. Here comes the lead out from Visma Lisebæk down the middle. I don't know who they're leading out because I don't see them as really having an option here today but we'll see. Might be wrong, could be Bart Lehmann going for this. Here goes Kubič up the right-hand side, left-hand side is Paul Manier. Manier goes now, that's him over the top of the cobbles. This is the position where he won the Dries van Gastel Het Hagelen from. Paul Manier going for this. Yeah, and he should lead all the way to the line. He's got Lukáš Kubič coming at him but Paul Manier is going to win the opening stage. As we thought he might but boy was a run in totally out of control. It was no control. The result I think we expected but not the way we expected it to happen because the last 10 kilometers of that race was a brilliant, absolute chaos. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Yes indeed, total chaos. We're in for a good week of racing. This is where you want your eyes to be Well the result on paper might look like we had a boring opening sprint stage but nothing like it. Paul Manier was made to work for that and he's got a lot of thanks to put in there to his teammates. He takes a high five by the looks of it from Mathis van Kerkula and that is win number seven for the winningest rider in this field by quite some way this year. Paul Manier another win for the French. To give them some credit we know, I think I used the word panic in the last 10 kilometers about Sudar Quick-Step which wasn't quite fair because they didn't really panic. They just tapped things down, chased it, kept a very loose control of it. They were always at the front ready to just kind of keep the pace high-ish and never really got too thrown by some of the attacks that were going up the road. They were happy that things were going to come back. So they did they did quite a good job in the end and the last kilometer they got right. Yeah it has to be said I think Paul Manier has got a lot to thank Yves Lampaert therefore because Lampaert in the end did the final sort out, didn't he? The final kind of bring it all back together, get it back under control, stop messing around. Yves Lampaert looks in really good form actually. The former Belgian champion there is with Paul Manier. They got it but they were made to work for that, no doubt about it. And in a way they almost needed one or two more world teams with a strong sprinter to just get trains going. Yeah and they were missing, I mean Lucas Cubis as only as we've said only got four teammates so he wasn't there to work. I mean you look at all the other strong teams like we said there aren't a great strength of sprinters. Even Lotto who's got a decent sprinter in Malan-Menten seemed more interested in making trouble by firing Lowland-Curry off the road. But here it is from on high the man you just mentioned Lukasz Cubis the Slovak road race champion taking second behind the expected winner who has delivered Paul Manier the Frenchman. 21 year old getting seven wins in this season. That is quite remarkable in itself. Cubis second and then one of the Volker Wessels riders in third that might be Joppa Hermans. Liam Van Bylen I think Lotto in fourth.