Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) remains upbeat heading into next Saturday's Il Lombardia despite losing the overall CRO race lead to Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) at the last minute.

Vingegaard may have been caught off guard heading into Sunday's final sprint stage of the CRO race, but in the end did little to stave off Mohoric as the Slovenian took advantage of bonus seconds to snatch the overall win.

Vingegaard, who had already won stage 3, won the hardest stage of the 2.1-km race 48 hours later on Saturday, winning the hilly 154-km course from Opatija to Rabin. However, he could not let up in the remaining 158 km from Sveta Nedelja to Zagreb on Sunday, as Mohoric was in second place overall by only 8 seconds.

"We knew that Bahrain would try early on," Vingegaard said in a statement from Jumbo Visma.

"We tried too, but we are not fast enough to have a sprint match with these guys," Vingegaard said in a statement from Jumbo-Visma.

The Bahrain Victorious riders began to chip away at Vingegaard's lead early on, shaving off three seconds in the early intermediate sprint. The breakaway then raked in bonuses from the rest of the field, but there was still a chance for more bonuses at the finish line. [The first-place bonus of 10 seconds or the second-place bonus of 6 seconds was the only way to win the overall championship," said Vingegaard. And only if Vingegaard was out of the bonus.

In the end, Mohoric finished second in Zagreb behind Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers), and Vingegaard finished 14th, out of bonus range. Vingegaard was 14th outside the bonus range.

"I'm not a sprinter and I don't like group sprints," Vingegaard said. "I wanted to win here, but it is what it is. Mohoric got enough bonus seconds today and he deserved it. This is part of cycling."

The CRO race marked Vingegaard's return to action 65 days after his victory in the Tour de France. Although he missed out on the overall win, two stage wins and a good overall result have him optimistic about the road ahead for Il Lombardia.

"I'm happy and satisfied with how this week has gone," he said. I'm looking forward to next week. It's one of my big goals for the season."