Lemmen claims first professional victory in Tour de Pologne after crash involving Kelderman, Almeida, and others

The fourth stage of the Tour of Poland was marred by a major crash. In hot and wet conditions in Eastern Europe, riders at the front of the peloton slid out, triggering a chain reaction. UAE Team Emirates-XRG and EF Education-EasyPost were the worst affected, while Wilco Kelderman was also caught up in the incident for Visma | Lease a Bike. The organisers subsequently decided to neutralize the stage.

Jonathan Milan had won each of the opening three stages in a bunch sprint, but he knew his dominance in Poland would eventually come to an end. Stage four finished in Karpacz at the top of a 1.1-kilometre climb averaging 8.3 per cent, shortly after another ascent measuring seven kilometres at 6.2 per cent. Thibau Nys is among the riders to have won on this finish in recent years.

Unfortunately, the peloton had to begin stage four with one rider fewer. Anton Schiffer, riding for Visma | Lease a Bike, was found to have broken his collarbone in a crash during stage three. It was a major setback for the German, who had also broken his collarbone in mid-June before spending three weeks training at altitude in preparation for the second half of the season.

Without Schiffer, the peloton set off on the 176-kilometre stage, the opening 150 kilometres of which were largely flat. That produced the familiar scenario of a four-rider breakaway being chased by the peloton. The leading quartet consisted of Dries De Bondt of Jayco AlUla, Matteo Malucelli of XDS Astana Team, and Polish national-team riders Tobiasz Pawlak and Patryk Stosz.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG made its intentions clear by taking control of the peloton through Rune Herregodts and Vegard Stake Laengen. Meanwhile, the sky over Poland turned dark grey as thunderstorms appeared to be approaching.

Sprinter Juan Sebastián Molano was riding at the front of the peloton and went down alongside the other UAE riders positioned near the front. The Colombian remained on the ground in pain for a considerable time and initially appeared to be the most seriously affected rider. Jan Christen, Benoît Cosnefroy and team leader João Almeida were also among those who crashed.

Many other riders had nowhere to go because the Polish roads had become extremely slippery. UAE Team Emirates-XRG and EF Education-EasyPost were caught up almost collectively, while Dutch champion Wilco Kelderman was also involved. Kelderman was able to continue, as were race leader Jonathan Milan and Stefan Küng. Around 25 riders were on the ground when the television motorbike behind the peloton reached the scene.

Following the mass crash, the organisers felt they had no choice but to halt the race until it was clear whether enough ambulances remained available to follow the stage. There were still 40 kilometres to race at the time of the incident, while the breakaway riders held a lead of one minute and 50 seconds. Many riders used the interruption to release some pressure from their tyres in an attempt to gain more grip on the wet roads.

At 4.05 p.m., around 30 minutes after the crash, enough ambulances had returned for the stage to resume in a modified form. The Borowice climb—and, most importantly, its descent—was removed from the course, reducing the remaining racing distance by 14 kilometres.

That’s exactly what the riders from Visma | Lease a Bike did, with Tijmen Graat and Bart Lemmen. Lemmen broke away at the front with Marco Brenner (Tudor) and Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) and dropped his fellow escapees with 4.5 kilometers to go, after which he set off solo in pursuit of his first pro victory.

The Dutchman, who had also crashed earlier in the race, launched a strong attack at the start of the final kilometer and didn’t let up from there. Scaroni came very close, but fell short by two meters of Lemmen, who is also the race leader.

1. Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike)

2. Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana)

3. Marco Brenner (Tudor)