Split-second decisions, summit finish battles and ultra-narrow victory margins have featured a lot recently in Matej Mohorič’s cycling career, and Monday’s hilltop stage finish at Duszniki-Zdrój in the Tour de Pologne proved no exception to the rule.
Mohoricč (Bahrain Victorious) finished a very close second to Rafal Majka as the UAE Team Emirates racer took the day’s honours after leading a strung-out peloton up the second half of the climb then piling on the speed at the summit for a bunch sprint win. Mohorič retained the overall lead.
But after capturing a stage of the Tour de France 10 days ago by less than a tyre’s width against Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) then outgunning João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) in a prolonged two-way duel in the Tour de Pologne on Sunday, Mohorič’s losing so narrowly to Majka 24 hours later saw the Slovenian flung back into the thick of yet more top-level, knife-edge fighting for victory.
“Today the goal was to try to win the stage again, because I think this was the stage best suited to my characteristics. But I was disappointed in myself in the final sprint because I hesitated to go first into the last corner,” Mohorič said afterwards.
“It was a split-second decision, and I left myself a small gap. I tried to pass on the left side but it was unfortunate. It was also likely they would close the left side, so I had to slow down and speed up again, and then I didn’t have enough energy left to do the bike throw on the finish line.”
Although there had been some comments about Majka’s choice of line in the final three-way sprint against Mohorič and Kwiatkowski on stage 3, the commissaires did not see any irregularity in Majka’s manoeuvering in the final metres, and Mohorič argued, in any case, that whatever had or had not happened, he had not been affected.
“I think we have the commissaires at the race, and they decided it was not enough for an allegation, so…” he concluded.
Majka himself denied there had been any irregularity telling local reporters, “There was a lot of space at the top of the climb and I just did my sprint,” while Kwiatkowski, also played down any sense of controversy in his interviews, saying simply, “Majka had strong legs and there was nothing I could do".
On the plus side for Mohorič, after stage 3 the Slovenian retained the overall lead on Majka and the Pole’s teammate Almeida by 10 seconds. Mohorič was not overly optimistic about keeping it in Thursday’s decisive time trial should he not increase his margin on Almeida. He pointed out there was still another opportunity to stretch open the gap between the two before the 16.6-kilometre showdown against the clock in Katowice on Thursday.
“It all depends on the day, on paper I would say it’s not enough yet, but there’s one more opportunity for me, if I can win the stage and get some bonus seconds on Wednesday,” he reasoned. “We’ll first fight for that, then in the time trial I’ll give it my best and see.”
