4 August, 2017, Bukowina Tatrzańska (POL)
Dylan Teuns showed he is in the form of his career by claiming the overall win at the Tour of Poland in an impressive display of strength and determination across the seven days of racing.
Teuns lined up for stage 7 with a slim 6-second advantage and with the top 12 separated by 43 seconds, BMC Racing Team was prepared to do everything possible to defend Teuns’ yellow jersey.
An early move on the 132km stage, forced by Peter Sagan (Bors – hangrohe), saw 13 riders go clear, but with no-one threatening the overall lead of Teuns, BMC Racing Team was happy to allow the breakaway to build up an advantage of almost three minutes.
As the breakaway headed up the unclassified 5km climb and crossed the finish line for the first time with 66.5km to go, the peloton had cut into their advantage by 30 seconds before a determined effort from UAE Team Emirates at the front of the bunch saw small gaps begin to form.
After the breakaway extended its advantage to back over two minutes, the chase began to heat up once again with Teuns well-positioned at the front, neatly tucked between Rohan Dennis and Tejay van Garderen as the race entered the final 50km of the day.
Eventually just Sagan remained out in front and he was holding onto an advantage of 40 seconds over his closest chaser, Diego Rosa (Team Sky), with the reduced main bunch another 30 seconds back as he began the final categorized climb of the day to Ścania Bukovina.
Dennis began to set the pace with 20km to go with another big effort at the front of the bunch before the attacks from Teuns’ General Classification rivals began.
Rafal Majka (Bora – hansgrohe), who sat second on the General Classification, made the first move with Teuns, alongside van Garderen who matched each one before a burst of acceleration from Wout Poels (Team Sky) to close the gap to Sagan saw Teuns lose touch with group.
An impressive display of teamwork from van Garderen saw the America drop back to Teuns and help bring him back of the front group as they reached the descent towards the final rise to the line with less than 10km to go.
Sagan attacked once again and was able to extend an advantage of 20 seconds as they reached the foot of the final climb but with attacks coming from the reduced General Classification group, Sagan was swept up with 2.3km to go.
The battle was on in the final kilometer for the stage win and the overall victory but Teuns gave it everything he had to stay with the leaders and cross the line in fifth place, behind stage winner Poels, which was enough to retain the race lead by two seconds.
Teuns’ win caps off the best two weeks to date of the Belgian’s career after winning stage 3 on the back of two stage wins and the overall victory at the VOO Tour de Wallonie.
The Winner’s Interview with Dylan Teuns
Congratulations, Dylan! Can you believe it?
“No, I can’t believe it. It still hasn’t sunk in. It’s unbelievable!”
Talk us through the stage. How did you manage to stay calm?
“This was the thing, to stay calm. We needed to control the top ten and take care at the start because it could be a little bit hectic. It went pretty well and a big breakaway went but there was nothing dangerous for us. UAE Team Emirates took control so we were able to sit behind them and leave the group four minutes ahead and bring them back to two minutes in the final and let them go for the stage win. But, it didn’t go like this”
“We knew the last lap would be harder than the first one and it was climb after climb. I was still feeling good before the really steep climb but I knew when I was climbing that I was quite at the limit and then I found it difficult to recover for the second to last climb. It was a really hard moment for me. I was so lucky to have Tejay van Garderen with me. He was pacing but it was too hard so I called him back in the radio and he did directly and did a perfect pace on the climb. I was still at my limit but not over my limit so I could come back in the descent and recover in Tejay’s wheel a bit. Then we had a flat part and I could take a few breaths. In the last climb I said to myself “Now it’s all in. I have Tejay with me” and it was perfect. I could see that he still had something left in the legs to do this last climb. Majka tried to attack me three times I think and I knew I had to follow. I was hurting so much in the final sprint but I knew what it was for. I gave it everything I had in my legs.”
What can you say about your teammates?
“My teammates were all amazing. Like I said a couple of days ago when I won the stage, the confidence and trust they gave me was unbelievable. I’m still young but when these guys with so much experience and these palmares believe in you, that’s an honor. They knew I was in second place yesterday and they did everything to put me in the lead and today they did everything to defend this jersey. It’s amazing.”
You recorded your first professional victory less than two weeks ago and now you have five to your name. What can you attribute this to?
“It’s difficult to say. I showed already some good results in the last two years at hard races but I never had these results. This year in Wallonie I was really confident in myself and then two days before Poland, you hear you can be leader together with Samuel Sanchez, then you know the team believes in you also. I started to believe more and more in myself. I had a hard Giro d’Italia because I was a little bit sick before but after I recovered a lot, and I did a good altitude training camp. And now one success follows another success. I have made the step to become the winner I was in the U23.”
Sports Director, Max Sciandri:
“I was sitting just behind the GC group so I could see everything that happened and it’s really good to be there and see the race unfold from a tactical advantage. Short stages are hard to control. The roads are narrow and the descents are technical. When Dylan dropped we called Tejay van Garderen back and he paced Dylan pack. The guys were perfect. Dylan stayed as calm as you can be in that situation. Tejay did an amazing job. Rohan Dennis was amazing. The whole team was just incredible. The job we did yesterday set us up today. We got rid of Peter Sagan (Bora – hansgrohe) who, for me, was the biggest threat. We were lucky that UAE Team Emirates pulled today because they were going for the win with Rui Costa, so that saved us from a lot of work. When Rohan kicked in, we started to nail down the race and from there everything came together. It’s amazing to finish the week like this, not just with Dylan’s effort but the effort from the whole team.”
Race Profile
Tour of Poland
Stage 7: Bukovina Resort > Bukowina Tatrzańska, 132km
Top 3: 1. Woet Poels (Team Sky), 2. Adam Yates (ORICA-SCOTT) 3. Rafal Majka (Bora – hansgrohe).
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 5. Dylan Teuns, 9. Tejay van Garderen
Top 3 on GC: 1. Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), 2. Rafal Majka (Bora – hansgrohe), 3. Woet Poels (Team Sky).
