Excitement in Poland: Monegask Langelotti overtakes McNulty in the final meters

The Tour of Poland has been a race in which the differences traditionally remain small for years, and this year was no exception. Going into the final weekend, which consisted of this hilly stage and a concluding 12-kilometer time trial, there were still 31 riders within a minute of leader Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R).

At the start of stage six, the peloton was a lot smaller, as we had eight riders who did not start. The most notable names were Michal Kwiatkowski and Magnus Sheffield of INEOS Grenadiers: both classification contenders had fallen ill the night before the stage. Former winner Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step), Nikias Behrens (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) were among those who also withdrew from the race.

With an uphill start, it was game on right from the beginning. King of the Mountains Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) lived up to his status. He immediately picked up the necessary points, which also saw him form a leading group of eight riders. Visma | Lease a Bike sprinters Matthew Brennan and Olav Kooij were there, as were Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), Reuben Thompson (Lotto), and Chris Hamilton of Picnic PostNL.

A little later, Marijn van den Berg and Colby Simmons of EF Education-EasyPost also joined, bringing the total number of breakaway riders to ten. However, Brennan and Hamilton were still relatively high in the rankings, which prompted UAE Emirates-XRG and Bahrain Victorious not to give them too much space.

Kooij went all out to help his teammate gain as much of a lead as possible and then let himself be dropped. This did not immediately benefit Brennan, because ten kilometers later than his Dutch teammate, he too was caught by the peloton on the steep sections of the climbs on the local circuit around Bukovina.

From that moment on, it was up to better riders in this race, with Rafal Majka (UAE Emirates-XRG) taking the lead. About twenty riders followed the local hero, with a few more joining them later. The remaining domestiques knew what they had to do: empty their energy reserves until the last two climbs, where the decision would be made.

Bahrain Victorious took control of the race heading towards the obstacles, where yellow jersey Lapeira was struggling. Majka immediately retook the lead on the climb, seemingly putting the Frenchman from Decathlon AG2R out of contention. This left the battle for first place wide open again.

Just before the top of the penultimate climb, Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain launched his attack, reducing the leading group to about ten riders. Among them were three riders from UAE, who were unable to capitalize on their advantage before the final climb to the finish. And so it was up to Majka to lead his teammates, Christen and McNulty.

They tried in turn but were closely followed by Bilbao and Tiberi. The latter then attacked himself, but McNulty managed to follow along with his compatriot Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech). With 800 meters to go, McNulty made a final move, but Victor Langelotti (INEOS) suddenly came from behind to snatch the victory. He also took the lead.