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Christen wins stage in Slovenia and takes lead

Fabio Christen wins stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia – after Rui Oliveira got relegated – and is now also the new race leader. The Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team showed fantastic team work and got its tenth win of the season.

5 June 2025

Fabio Christen has won stage two of the Tour of Slovenia and is also the new race leader in this five-day stage race. The 22-year-old from Switzerland rounded off perfect teamwork by the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team.

The second stage took the peloton from Velenje to Rogaška Slatina. After being in the breakaway on day one Christen was wearing the King of the Mountains jersey. He was also second in the overall classification, a second behind Dylan Groenewegen so he jumped in the break again to pick up the bonus seconds and KoM points.

Sports director Alex Sans Vega explains the strategy: “We knew today’s stage well because it was very similar to previous years. There were two options: a sprint stage like yesterday or it goes bananas. It went bananas,”he says with a smile.

“If the break wouldn’t be hard-fought and small we would let it go but it was a battle again and Fabio was there for us securing the bonus seconds and King of the Mountains points. When race leader Dylan Groenewegen got dropped on the climb, the scenario changed and we decide to race for it, especially since Phil Bauhaus was closest to Fabio in the overall. It was impressive teamwork with Calzoni, Bax, Parisini and Camprubí all with Fabio in the final 30 kilometers. Bax and Fabio then decided the race for it.”

Christen took the win from a lead group of seven, which is the tenth victory for the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team this year, and his second after the Vuelta al Murcía. Bax came in seventh and Parisini won the bunch sprint in eighth place. The team also won the day’s team classifcation.

Fabio Christen said after the finish: “I went in the break for the KoM points and I wasn’t even planning on going for the race lead in Tour of Slovenia at all. The goal here was to go for a stage win, and then prepare for my main goal at Tour de Suisse. The stage win worked and now I will try to see what’s possible but stage 4 is really hard and I shouldn’t kill myself either.”

The race was a true example of teamwork and Fabio was happy to see so many teammates still up there after he was caught from the break. Sjoerd Bax played a vital role with his attack, and now sits seventh overall.

“We were five riders, and there weren’t a lot of teams with numbers up there, so that’s really good,” Christen continued. “The plan was to go for the sprint with Nicoló, but then Sjoerd attacked just before the climb and I jumped across. I started my sprint early because I was in the wind. In the final, Oliveira touched me and that stopped me from sprinting to the line.”

The UCI commissaires decided to relegate Oliveira after which Fabio was called to the podium where he also picked up the leader’s jersey for the overall, points and King of the Mountains classifications.

“Tomorrow’s final also suits me well,” Christen concluded. “But we must see how the race plays out. Every day has been surprising so far so let’s see how tomorrow goes.”