While at present the interest in the tiny country of Slovenia for cycling is mainly focused on the great tour periods of Primoz Roglik and Tadjj Bogacar, ten to five years ago they had to do this mainly with Simon Spilak. Spilak was known as the king of racing the one-week stage, because he didn’t like it because of the big laps.
During the end Zeros Tadej Valjavec (the tour’s top ten) was still bragged in Slovenia, but until then another era was already coming. By the best talents Janez Brykovic and Spilak. Spilak showed his first beautiful performance at the end of 2017, by finishing fourth in the Tour de l’Avenir won by Bauke Mollema.
Lamber sees the bread at Spilak, which he adds the crumbs
Lamprey’s Italian professional team saw enough pink and decided to award the 23-year-old Spilak a contract in 2008. He immediately proved that the Slovenian was made of suitable wood in his first professional races. In the famous theater race Paris-Nice, he finished 12th as a freshman, before finishing an impressive Flemish Spring. The highlight was the ninth place on the Flanders Tour, which isn’t at all for most first-year riders.
In 2008 Spilak was also allowed to complete a big tour with Giro, followed by the tour in 2009. He must have decided on his own in 2010 that the big tour was not for him. That year, he finished second in the Tour de Romandie behind the later suspended Alejandro Valverde, while repeatedly failing in the Grand Touring against the same class of men.
Alternatively, perform in laps rather than a run on a tour
From that year on, Spilac competed year after year for marble balls in races such as Paris-Nice, the Basque Country Tour, Tour de Romandi, and Tour of Switzerland, while his desire for the Grand Tour gradually faded. After he tried it again on the tour in 2014, he took a plunge. “From now on, I will not be driving long rounds, this is my own choice. I prefer racing stage from six to ten days. It gives me more satisfaction than winning a round stage.”
It must be said: as for Spilak, this choice was not at all wrong. For example, on the 2015 and 2017 very difficult Switzerland tour, settle down with guys in complete tour setup like Geraint Thomas, Tom Dumoulin and Thibaut Pinot. However, the experts still agreed: There was probably more in the barrel. At the end of 2019, he ditched his bike at the age of 33, after finishing top ten on the Romani and Swiss Tours that year. His wand was zealously taken over by Rogelic and Bogacar.
Door: Tom Van Der Salem – [email protected]
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