Elia Viviani wins the first stage in the sprint race

Ilija Viviani (INEOS-Grenadiers) is the first leader and red jersey wearer of the eighth edition of the Tour of Croatia (2.1) after his success on the first stage on Tuesday.

The Italian, who achieved his first success this year, beat Dane Tobias Lund Andreasen (DSM Firmenich) and Singh in the sprint at the end of the 181-kilometre race between Primosten, on the edge of the Adriatic Sea, and Norwegian Alexander. Christophe (Uno-X Pro Cycling). New Zealander Campbell Stewart (Jayco-AlUla) finished fourth, and Italian Giovanni Lunardi (Iolo-Cometa) finished fifth. There are no Belgians on Croatian roads.

Thanks to the bonuses at the end, Viviani is 4 seconds ahead of Andersen in the general classification and 6 seconds ahead of Kristoff.

Despite the positive elevation difference of 2,500 metres, the final difficulty on the Klis from the finish, a Category 2 climb (7.4 km at 4.7%), occurred 47 km from the finish and did not make it possible to make a difference.

Five men, Simone Bevilacqua, Raul Garcia Perna, Michel Schoran, Edouard Ravasin, and Mateusz Grabis led the day’s breakaway. Got a 3 minute lead. At the coast of Kilis, the group split up. Bevilacqua, García Perna and Schoran remained alone at the front but did not resist, facing headwinds, the peloton that made the junction 20 kilometers from Singh.

Then the Jayco-Alula, Bahrain-Victorious and INEOS-Grenadiers teams in particular captured the riders. But 6.5 km from the target, a crash occurred. This delayed Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Al-Mutasir), winner of the event last year. He gave up about fifty seconds.

On Wednesday, the second stage of the eighth edition of the CRO race will connect Biograd na Moru with Novalja over a distance of 114.5 km, with an easy profile.

The Croatia round ends on Sunday in Zagreb at the end of the sixth stage.