The Belgian dominates the iconic finish line. Diego Ulissi is 13’’ behind the leader Jonas Vingeegard.
Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) once again dominated the queen stage of the 81st edition of the Tour de Pologne. The young Belgian talent took his third victory of this edition, beating the GC favourites in a bunch sprint in Bukowina Tatrzańska. On the eve of the final stage, Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma – Lease a Bike) still leads the race.
“I have no words,” said Thibau Nys. “I can only say that I can’t believe it because today it was very difficult to keep fighting. I was OK, but I couldn’t get over the limit. I needed a lot of luck to stay in front. I suffered on the climbs and I was in the third group on the last really steep section. But in the end I followed the moves. The teams wanted to catch the escapees. I knew that there was only one chance for me at the end. I didn’t have the right legs to get into the right position, to stay in front or to control. So I needed a lot of luck and faith.”
The phenomenal Belgian was unbeatable today. He crossed the line with a relatively large gap ahead of Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) and Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL).
The best-placed Pole was Rafał Majka in 19th place. “It was a nice stage. It’s a shame that there wasn’t an extra lap because it would have been fun. We wanted to win today, but Thibau Nys surprised us. I gave up with 500 metres to go. We were riding for our leader – Diego Ulissi – and we really thought we were going to win. We made up a few seconds, but the stage was really tough. The pace was high under the last wall of the BUKOVINA resort. We sent Tim Wellens up front to make Visma work, but Thibau (Nys) attacked. Congratulations to him. We are second in the general classification again, but we have a stage win,” commented Rafał Majka.
The stage that took the riders from Wadowice to the BUKOVINA Resort in Bukowina Tatrzańska was an opportunity to shake up the top of the ORLEN general classification. Jonas Vingegaard started this morning with the leader’s yellow jersey on his shoulders. Diego Ulissi was second at 19 seconds.
The 183 kilometre route was tailor-made for climbers and featured numerous climbs from the start. After an intense breakaway battle, Davide Formolo (Movistar Team), Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Decuninck) joined the lead group. Michał Paluta – the current holder of the polka dot jersey – tried to join the front group in the hope of gaining points on the KOM leaders, but his chase with Great Britain’s Lukas Nerurkar was unsuccessful.
The trio stayed in the lead and rode into the LOTTO intermediate sprint to Jabłonka, where Davide Formolo was the fastest. Soon after, INEOS Grenadiers’ Tobias Foss launched an attack and was joined by Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) and Mick van Dijke (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). The quartet set off in pursuit of the leaders, who in the meantime had collected points from the PZU KOM stages on the BUKOVINA Wall and Harnaś, where Dillier and Formolo were the best.
The two lead groups then joined forces, while the rest of the peloton increased the pace. However, the escapees managed to fight for the points at the LOTTO intermediate sprint in Szaflary, where Mick van Dijke triumphed.
Shortly afterwards, Archie Ryan attacked and rode solo for several kilometres to win the PZU on the BUKOVINA wall, before being caught by the select group of favourites on the final climb to the BUKOVINA resort. Yannis Voisard of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team tried to attack in the closing stages but was caught. In the sprint, Thibau Nys proved to be unbeatable and took his third victory in the 81st edition of the Tour de Pologne. He had previously won in Karpacz and Duszniki-Zdrój.
In the ORLEN general classification, Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma – Lease a Bike retained the lead and the yellow jersey, 13 seconds ahead of Diego Ulissi. Wilco Kelderman is third.
