Will the sprinters follow the best climbers to the finish on stage 1 of the Tour of Slovakia?

With 5 categorized mountains, it could also be a day for a long breakaway.

Who will win in Košice after 163km? Follow it live on SC Play, included with your ProXCskiing.com membership.

It will not be a walk in the park for Soudal-Quick Step’s Paul Magnier to win stage 1 as he did last year. An undulating stage starting and finishing in Košice, Slovakia’s second-largest city with about 230,000 inhabitants.

The entire Tour of Slovakia is available to stream live on SC Play, included with your ProXCSkiing.com membership. Watch stage 1 here starttime SC Play 14:30→

The course will take the riders north with a small loop at the northernmost part before heading back the same way to the finish. An ideal route for a breakaway to try to stay clear. But what are the three World Tour teams doing? Will they fight to keep it together? How much will they give a breakaway?

There are also a couple of hills not categorized, so the stage is far from easy. But there are more than 20km from the last top to the finish in Košice, and the hills are not the hardest, so it might give the sprinters some hope.

The stage also has one intermediate sprint at Rokycany. It’s in the north, before the riders turn back south towards Košice again. But the leader of the green jersey competition will probably be the stage winner. There are 20 points for winning the stage and only 6 for taking the intermediate sprint.

Here are the key points for stage 1

Distance – Point – Details

• 0km Start Košice at 13:10. Official start 13:19 (local time)
• 11.5km Joahodna Cat. 2 climb. 6.3 km at 4.0%. 554 masl. 6-4-2-1 points
• 39.2km Klenov Cat. 3 climb. 4.7 km at 6.2%. 629 masl. 3-2-1 points
• 62.2km Rokycany Intermediate sprint. 6-4-2-1 points. Time bonuses on GC: 3-2-1 sec
• 73.1km Pavelov vrch Cat. 2 climb. 5.9 km at 4.7%. 652 masl. 6-4-2-1 points
• 108.4km Pavelov vrch Cat. 2 climb. 5.9 km at 4.7%. 652 masl. 6-4-2-1 points
• 123km Folkmar Cat. 3 climb. 3 km at 5.7%. 549 masl. 3-2-1 points
• 163km Finish Košice. Same place as the riders started

• GC time bonuses: 10-6-4 seconds
• Green jersey points: 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1
• Estimated finish time: 17:06–17:29

Read More: How to watch Tour of Slovakia on SC Play

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