Jonathan Milan completes Tour of Poland hat-trick with another dominant sprint win

Jonathan Milan has also won the third stage of the Tour of Poland. After two bunch sprints on the opening two days, stage 3 also came down to a battle between the sprinting heavyweights despite its tricky finale. Milan has been in a class of his own this week and completed a hat-trick while wearing the yellow leader’s jersey.

The third stage of the Tour of Poland developed into an intriguing contest between the early breakaway and the peloton. The 193.5-kilometre route took the riders from Gorzów Wielkopolski to Zielona Góra, where an uphill run towards the finish awaited. Milan of Lidl-Trek started in the yellow leader’s jersey again after winning the first two stages, but would the Italian be given another opportunity to sprint on Wednesday?

Enzo Paleni, Matteo Sobrero, Dries De Bondt, Taco van der Hoorn, Sjoerd Bax and Fabio Christen formed the breakaway of the day. Behind them, EF Education-EasyPost and Soudal Quick-Step were among the teams taking responsibility for the chase. With just over 38 kilometres remaining, the attackers still held an advantage of around one and a half minutes.

As the race approached the finale, Van der Hoorn attempted to leave his breakaway companions behind. The Lotto-Intermarché rider made a strong effort, but the other five ultimately refused to allow him to begin a solo ride of more than 30 kilometres. With Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates-XRG also beginning to contribute at the front of the peloton, the six escapees desperately needed one another.

Approaching the final 10 kilometres, the breakaway’s advantage had fallen to only half a minute, with the category-three climb towards Przytok providing an important late obstacle. After the climb, 12 kilometres remained on rolling roads that repeatedly rose and fell. The last breakaway riders were caught four kilometres from the finish, before Milan did exactly what he had already done on the previous two days.

1. Jonathan Milan
2. Noah Hobbs
3. Alessandro Romele
4. Oded Kogut
5. Daniel Skerl