Tobias Svarre (Uno-X Mobility, Denmark) won the CRO Race (Croatia), 6 stages from 22 September to 27 September, in 21h37’50”. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious, Italy) was second at 4″, with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG, Belgium) third at 8″.
The race
The CRO Race was decided on 24 September, on the third stage, from Krk to Labin: 174.5 kilometres, the hardest stage of the week. Until that day the race, which had started in Split on 22 September, had no master. Then Tobias Svarre did one thing only: he waited for the last kilometre.
The breakaway formed straight after the start. In it were Carl-Frederik Bévort, Svarre’s Uno-X Mobility team-mate and the previous day’s winner, Tim Torn Teutenberg of Lidl-Trek and Axel van der Tuuk of Euskaltel-Euskadi. The gap rose to over seven minutes, with UAE Team Emirates XRG pulling the bunch. At the first passage through Labin the deficit had already come down to 2’15”.
The turning point came on the climb of the Skitač. The breakaway was caught and Antonio Tiberi went off alone. At the top he had 5” on Svarre and 12” on Wellens, then the margin grew to almost 20”. Tim Wellens began to chase him and Svarre joined him. The two closed the gap and caught him 3 kilometres from the finish.
The three of them, on a final climb with no real mountain gradients, could not drop one another. Tiberi attacked 100 metres from the line. Svarre responded, came alongside him and beat him by half a wheel, with the same time. Wellens came in third at 6”. It was Svarre’s first professional win, in his first year among the pros: the organiser wrote that after the finish he said he was speechless.
From that day Svarre wore the leader’s jersey, with 4” over Tiberi and 12” over Wellens. The next day came the Učka, on the road from Pula to Rijeka, and the Dane had said that Uno-X would try to defend the jersey right there. He defended it. Between Svarre and Tiberi nothing changed again: those 4” were there at the finish in Labin and they stayed until the end.
The final stage, on Sunday 27 September in Zagreb, changed little in the standings. Five riders went clear: Jon Agirre, Valentin Ferron, Andrea Bessega, Dario Giuliano and Manuele Tarozzi. Agirre became virtual leader for a while and went over the top first on the last climb, but the bunch ate into his advantage. Cofidis tried to anticipate the sprint with Sam Maisonobe, without success. UAE led the chase, with Tiberi among the men at the front. Davide Donati won the sprint ahead of Lorenzo De Longhi and Paul Magnier.
Svarre also won the young riders’ classification, Tiberi the mountains classification and Bévort the points classification. For Uno-X they were full days: besides the general classification, Bévort won the second stage and Svarre the third.
Denmark had never won the CRO Race, at least since 2019. At 22, Svarre is also the youngest winner of the race in this period. Before him, in the recent roll of honour, were McNulty in 2024 and 2025, Aular in 2023, Mohoric in 2022 and Williams in 2021.
The first of the Italians is Antonio Tiberi, Bahrain Victorious, 2nd at 4″. 103 riders finished out of 103 starters.
General classification
| # | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tobias Svarre | Uno-X Mobility | 21h37’50” |
| 2 | Antonio Tiberi | Bahrain Victorious | +4″ |
| 3 | Tim Wellens | UAE Team Emirates XRG | +8″ |
| 4 | Sam Maisonobe | Cofidis | +19″ |
| 5 | Adrien Boichis | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe | +39″ |
| 6 | Dylan Teuns | Cofidis | +41″ |
| 7 | Johannes Kulset | Uno-X Mobility | +41″ |
| 8 | Emil Herzog | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe | +41″ |
| 9 | Steff Cras | Soudal Quick-Step | +47″ |
| 10 | Aime De Gendt | Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | +58″ |
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: UCI, official results.
- Photo: Ssu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
