Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) claimed his second victory in three days on the Tour de Pologne after he delivered another perfectly pitched sprint on the uphill finale at Duszniki-Zdrój. The Belgian timed his effort smartly, coming past Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) within sight of the line to take the spoils.
Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) came home in third place on the stage ahead of Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos).
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) retains the overall lead after he placed 9th on the day, three seconds behind Nys. The Dane was prominent in the finale when he cut the peloton in size with an acceleration on the second of two ascents of Karłów.
Thanks to the time bonus for second place, Ulissi moves up to second overall, 16 seconds behind Vingegaard, while Kelderman lies third at 18 seconds.
The stage took in no fewer than five category 2 ascents ahead of the short, sharp kick to the finish, and the day was animated by a ten-man move that took shape in two parts. Michal Paluta (Poland), Jan Maas (Jayco-Alula) and Nicolas Debeaumarché (Cofidis) went up the road early on before they were joined by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ), Ben Turner (Ineos), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), Mick van Dijke (Visma-Lease a Bike), Hugo Houle (Israel Premier Tech) and Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep) ahead of the first ascent of Karłów.
A crash later took Reinderink and Debeaumarché out of the break and despite Bilbao’s attempts to press on over the top of the climb, the peloton began to close in steadily on the escapees as they came around for their second lap over the ascent of Karłów, with EF Education-EasyPost and DSM-Firmenich-PostNL to the fore.
The escapees were reeled in on the ascent with a shade under 20km to go. Shortly afterwards, Vingegaard himself came to the front, and his steady but sustained acceleration set the terms of engagement for the remainder of the stage. His effort helped to whittle down the peloton, while further accelerations from Archie Ryan and Jakob Fulgsang ensured the dropped riders would struggle to make their way back on.
From there, it was clear that the stage would be decided on the 800m-long kick to the finish in Duszniki-Zdrój, and Lidl-Trek set out their intentions by setting the tempo on the approach to the climb, with Mads Pedersen putting in a mammoth turn on the front.
Bahrain Victorious took up the reins beneath the flamme rouge, and they still led as the race swung onto the narrow road that led towards the finish line. As the gradient began to bite, Ulissi, Ryan and Kelderman moved towards the front, surely reasoning that it would be difficult to move up on a narrow road like this one.
Ulissi is an expert in scenarios such as this. After leading on the steepest ramps of the climb, he opened his effort in earnest as the road began to flatten out with 200m to go. He led into the final bends, but Nys – already so impressive in victory on stage 1 – had moved into position. The Belgian bided his time before unleashing a crisp sprint, and he came around Ulissi in the final 50m to claim the eighth victory of a fine season.
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