1993 Tour of Slovenia

The 1993 Tour of Slovenia (Dirka po Sloveniji) was the first edition of the Tour of Slovenia, an amateur International stage race held between 3 and 9 May 1993 with start and finish in Novo mesto.

The Tour consisted of opening prologue and 7 actual stages with 905.5 km (562.7 mi) in total.

Total prize money was 40,000 deutsche marks. Race winner was awarded with a Škoda Favorit car.

Best Slovenian classification with pink jersey was exceptionally competed only in the first edition.

Teams
Total 92 riders (56 finished it) from 16 teams started the race.

Amateur

 * U. C. Trevigiani
 * MTV La Campana
 * Perspective
 * RSV Oseh. Ali
 * Breda Holl

National

 * Slovenia 1
 * Slovenia 2
 * Krka - Petrol (Slovenia 3)
 * 🇦🇱 Albania
 * 🇺🇸 United States
 * 🇸🇰 Slovakia
 * Croatia
 * 🇦🇹 Austria
 * 🇨🇿 Czechia
 * 🇵🇱 Poland
 * 🇧🇬 Bulgaria

Prologue
On 3 May 1993, the 5 km long prologue was held. Gorazd Štangelj won ahead of Robert Pintarič (2nd) and Martin Hvastija (3rd), all Slovenians.

Stage 1
On 4 May 1993 first real and the longest stage of the race (189 km), was held between Otočec and Celje.

Robert Pintarič who won the stage, also took overall lead with wearing yellow jersey due to many bonus points.

Stage 2
On 5 May 1993 second stage was held between Rogaška Slatina and Ptuj. In the sprint of peloton, Boštjan Mervar won the rainy stage.

Stage 3 & 4
On 6 May 1993 two stages were held. First was team time trial (46.2 km) held in the morning in Krško, which didn't count for individual ranking.

And the 4th round stage (80.3 km) followed in the afternoon with start and finish at Čatež Spa, with two points and one mountain classifications.

Stage 5
On 7 May 1993, the fifth stage (166 km) was held. It started at Otočec and through Metlika-Črnomelj-Dvor-Kočevje-Velike Lašče-Ljubljana.

The stage had three points classifications (Metlika, Črnomelj and Ribnica) and one mountain classification at Brezovica pri Metliki).

The stage was very chaotic with huge conflict between team directors and coaches, who forgot that national team interests have huge advantage before club interests. Instead of defending yellow jersey, peloton was strangely chasing Martin Hvastija, who was leading the two thirds of the race.

Stage 6
On 8 May 1993, the sixth and the toughest stage (142 km) from Ajdovščina to Kranjska Gora was held. With 16 km long incline over Vršič Pass.

Stage started with escape if 3 riders with 6 minutes ahead, but got caught by peloton at bottom of the Vršič climb. Srečko Glivar was the best at climb with 2 minutes ahead, but was caught at way down to the finish at Kranjska Gora by 2 riders, Wim van de Meulenhof won the stage at finish sprint.

Stage 7
On 9 May 1993, the seventh and last stage (160 km) with start and finish held at Novo mesto and went through Otočec, Orehovica and Ratež.

Slovenian rider Milan Eržen won the last stage at sprint and the Slovenia 1 team managed to kept the yellow jersey in general classification.