Urška Žigart rounded out a dominant week at the Slovenian national championships by taking her first road race victory by more than 10 minutes in Trebnje on Sunday.
It is the Liv AlUla Jayco rider’s second national title within two days, after claiming gold in the Slovenian national time trial championships on Friday, delivering her fourth career TT title.
Due to a lack of numbers, the elite women raced with the junior men over a demanding 107.5km course. This was not an issue for the 27-year-old as she showed her world-class climbing strength and powered her way to victory, by a big margin over of her rivals.
Žigart will now return to Monaco to train and focus on the the up and coming Giro d’Italia Women, where she will showcase the Slovenian national colours for the first time.
Urška Žigart:
“The race was really hard today. We started with the junior men, like always, and the course was hard this year with almost a 2km climb at 10% and it was really selective. After the first lap I was the only woman left in the group with the guys and I was really on the limit so I knew the next time around I would not make it. I followed some moves to get a little bit of an advantage before the second time climbing.
“We got a minute at the bottom so when the best guys from the group behind went again, it was perfect because I was in the front group. From then on, I just tried to stick with them and it was super hard. In the end I made it with a huge gap and I´m really, really happy to have the legs today to play it smart and it all came together. It´s my first road race title so I´m super happy to finally wear the Slovenia flag in the road races.”
2024 Slovenian Road Race Championships 107.5km:
Urška Žigart (Liv AlUla Jayco) 3:01:14
Urška Pintar +10.47
Spela Kern +11:03
