Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) won the Slovenian Road Championship on Sunday in a solo victory. He won a two-man battle with Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and pulled away from his rivals on the final 8km climb to Ambrosh Pod Krvavec to become the new champion.

Matej Mohoric (Bahrain McLaren) finished third.

"Finally we can race again and do what we do best, race bikes. So we are very happy to have won the national title in the first race of the season," he said in a team press release.

"The last climb was a very tough race. Given our spring results, Taddei was the favorite to win and it was not easy to beat him. I had calculated the climb well over the last few days and knew where to attack.

"It feels great to win my first race of the season. I'm not in great shape yet, but I'm looking forward to the upcoming races. I also want to thank the team for supporting me in Slovenia. It means a lot to me."

The UCI announced a revision of its road racing calendar in May, placing many national championships on the August 22-23 weekend. However, some countries continue to face various levels of blockades, including public health and travel restrictions, which may prevent such events from taking place.

Organizers of the Slovenian national championships announced in early June that the men's and women's road races would be held on June 21 as originally scheduled, the only national championships in Europe to be held on the original dates following the interruption of the cycling season due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Slovenia was the first European country to declare an end to the COVID-19 coronavirus in its country when it began lifting blockade restrictions in mid-May.

Roglic and Pogacar were scheduled to participate in the elite men's road race. The race was 146 km, starting in Dvorje and finishing after six laps with an 8 km climb averaging 7.9% to Ambrosh Pod Krvavec, just over 1,000 m above sea level.

A four-man breakaway group including Jiga Horvat (Adria Mobil), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain McLaren), Nik Semazar (KK Krani), and Matik Groseley (Ljubljana Gusto) gained two minutes on the first circuit. Horvat lost contact with the leading group on the fourth circuit, but the breakaway group continued to run with a two-minute advantage.

The breakaway was reduced to two riders, Tratnik and Semazar, going into the final climb, but with 10km to go, the lead was reduced from 1:30 to 40 seconds, to just 25 seconds at the start of the climb.

The chasing group included such leading riders as Pogacar, Roglic, Mohoric, Luka Pibernik (Bahrain McLaren), and Jani Brajkovic (Adria Mobil).

However, the race swung on the final climb, and Tratnik, the last of the breakaway group, was caught by the new leaders, Pogacar and Roglic.

The two emerged as the strongest riders on the climb to the finish, with Pogacar reportedly holding on to Roglic's steering wheel for the final two kilometers. In the end, Roglic pulled away from his rivals and crossed the finish line alone, 10 seconds ahead of Pogacar, to take the national title.

In the women's 68 km race, Ursa Pintar (Ale BTC Ljubljana) took the national title.

Spera Khan (Lviv Cycling Team) was second, 14 seconds behind Pintar. Urska Zigato (Ale BTC Ljubljana) was third, another 9 minutes behind. Last year's winner Eugenia Bujak (Ale BTC Ljubljana) was fourth and Braza Pintaric was fifth.

The World National Championships are scheduled for August 22-23.