Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) blasted around Jordi Meuss (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) just before the line in Katowice and snatched the victory on stage 5 at the Tour de Pologne.
Thursday’s stage winner Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) took another podium with third, ahead of Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) hit the front in the final 400 metres and looked set to deliver Meuss to victory, but Merlier jumped from seven spots back on the far left side to grab the victory in the closing metres.
The fast finish on Walenty Roździeński Avenue in Katowice saw disruption to the rhythm of the sprint teams when three riders near the front of the peloton crashed with 3.2km to go. Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Lidl-Trek’s sprinter Mads Pedersen were impacted, which kept them from contesting the final sprint.
All three riders who went down in the late crash were able to cross the finish, Ewan 3:43 back, Pederson and Bauhaus 4:22 back.
There were no changes to the top standings of the GC, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) retained his lead over Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) trailing Vingegaard by 19 seconds and Visma’s Wilco Kelderman was another second back in third. Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) continued in fourth and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) in fifth, the two 33 and 37 seconds, respectively, back.
"I feel quite good, actually. It wasn't an easy stage, to be honest," Vingegaard said at the end. "There was a good breakaway out there and we had to go fast all day. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel great as well."
A three-rider breakaway escaped for all but 10km of the 187.6km stage, which may have been a factor since this was the only day of the seven-day stage race that race radios were not used, an experiment by the UCI.
How it unfolded
Friday’s 187.6km Katowice stage posed discomfort with hills and heat, the temperature creeping above the 30°C mark. The first of three intermediate sprints sat at the top of a small climb 21km from the start at Jaworzno. After a large loop across more hills, two more intermediate sprints were positioned on the final 50km back into Katowice, Bukowno and Myslowice.
Only one of the many rollers was tagged as a classified climb, coming at the mid-way point on the far eastern section of the large loop at Ojców (2.1km at 5.1%), situated in the Ojców National Park. The route includes 1,700 metres of elevation gain, so the sprint teams were eager to make it through the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland and get to business with the flat finish.
Three riders did not make the start line Friday, Szymon Sajnok (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) who had been recognised with the race’s most active rider jersey, Gianluca Brambilla and Ben Turner.
From the drop of the green flag to start the proceedings, a trio of riders created the early breakaway - Norbert Banaszek (Polish National Team), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and they created a gap of 4 minutes as they went through the Pradnik valley. Flying through Jaworzno, the trio scooped up both the sprint points and most active points, Banaszek in the lead.
Passing over the crest of the Ojców climb, the trio rode 3:50 ahead of the peloton, Visma-Lease a Bike leading the chase and protecting race leader Vingegaard.
With 47km to go, the large loop on the route was closed and Azparren took the top points in the special sprint in Bukowno. The trio remained intact but their lead now dipped below 2 minutes.
As the final intermediate sprint approached, the breakaway’s advantage dipped under one minute, Banaszek showing more signs of fatigue than his companions. WorldTour teams Soudal-QuickStep and Jayco-AlUla led the peloton in the chase, ramping up the pace with more interest in the nearing finish line than the front trio, as none of the rider’s posed a threat to the GC.
Banaszek scooped up the 3 points on offer across the sprint line, then he let off the gas and dropped back to the peloton. Azparren and Jacobs, meanwhile, pressed on to see if their legs had something special.
As the final 15km began, the peloton spread across the wide, flat road, Intermarché-Wanty on the far right side, Ineos Grenadiers on the far left side and Soudal and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in the middle. Visma was settled in the middle of the peloton.
The efforts of the final duo in the breakaway ende with 10km to go. What had been a wide pack spread across the roads of Katowice was now a series of teams forming lead-out trains, Visma-Lease a Bike having moved beside Intermarché and Lidl-Trek at the front.
There was a small uphill drag with 4km to go where Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Deceuninck used to move to the front next to Lidl-Trek.
With 3.2km to go before a right-hand corner, three riders went down near the front, falling in the middle of the road which caused disruption among the sprint trains.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech had multiple riders remaining at the front and charged ahead as other squads regrouped quickly to hit top speed. Red Bull’s tandem of Van Poppel and Meeus took charge in the final kilometre, but didn’t expect Merlier to explode from behind and take the win.
Results
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