Nys snatches victory from Kelderman in Poland - Vingegaard outmatched and not on the podium

With the Olympics just concluded, the Tour de France Femmes ongoing, and the Vuelta a España looming, it's impressive how Poland managed to gather such a strong lineup. Riders like Jonas Vingegaard—who raced in the Clasica San Sebastian just last Saturday—Olav Kooij, Tim Merlier, Mads Pedersen, Thibau Nys, and Romain Bardet all chose to kick off the second half of their season in this Eastern European country.

Starting from Wroclaw, the route led the riders towards Karpacz, where the finish was set on a 3.2-kilometer hill with an average gradient of 6.5 percent. Visma | Lease a Bike, Groupama-FDJ, and UAE-Team Emirates immediately took control behind a breakaway group of four riders, including Dutchman Jan Maas. Maas was joined by Polish riders Szymon Sajnok (Q36.5), Michal Paluta, and Robert Banaszek (Polish National Team).

Jayco AlUla’s Maas was beaten by Paluta in the fight for the mountain points, while Sajnok claimed the intermediate sprints. The peloton was cruising along but was startled by a crash 35 kilometers from the finish. Among those involved were Andrea Bagioli, Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek), and Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon AG2R), who hit the asphalt but were able to continue the race.

Seventeen kilometers from the finish, the peloton began the descent towards the final climb, with Danny van Poppel perfectly positioning his teammates at the front as the ideal lead-out. This also allowed him to close the gap to fellow Dutch rider Maas and his fellow escapee Paluta, who were caught just before the start of the final climb towards Karpacz.

Groupama-FDJ took control in preparation for those last uphill kilometers, but Soudal Quick-Step’s Dutch rider Pepijn Reinderink decided to take a daring, though unsuccessful, attack at the base of the climb. Meanwhile, in the peloton behind, Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) crashed, ending his general classification hopes in an instant.

Per Strand Hagenes lit up the pace for his leader Vingegaard, who was right on his wheel with three kilometers to go. However, the Norwegian couldn’t sustain the effort for long, giving Jan Christen (UAE-Team Emirates) the opportunity to launch an attack. The response came from none other than Wilco Kelderman.

The Dutchman appeared to make his move in support of his leader Vingegaard, not immediately overtaking the Swiss rider—a clever tactic. With 500 meters to go, Christen made another push, but Kelderman finally made his move, surging past. The Dutchman broke away from his companion, but the punchers were ready behind him.

Thibau Nys surged forward, powering past Kelderman on his way to victory in Karpacz. Kelderman finished second, marking his 153rd top-ten finish in the WorldTour without a win at the highest level. Vingegaard finished shortly after in fourth place, behind Kelderman and Lukas Nerurkar. Defending champion Matej Mohoric finished fifth.