Tricky final circuit no problem for Magnier, who powers to victory in the Tour of Poland

On Wednesday, we had seen a somewhat chaotic finale, with a heavy crash causing a neutralization. Despite this, the battle for the stage victory took place shortly afterwards, with Ben Turner (INEOS Grenadiers) emerging as the winner. However, the main question was the extent of the damage to the riders who had crashed, some of whom were unfortunately unable to continue.

A day later, 201.4 kilometers lay between the start in Rybnik and the finish in Cieszyn. Along the way, the riders had to tackle three climbs, but there was no serious climbing involved. As a result, the stage victory was mainly contested by the fast riders, although the final kilometer did climb steeply.

From the start, it was a Polish trio that accelerated. Pawel Bernas and Michael Pomorski joined Filip Maciejuk (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) on behalf of the Polish selection. A relatively low-risk breakaway group, or so it seemed. In the peloton, Soudal Quick-Step and Visma | Lease a Bike took the lead, allowing the trio to pull away to a maximum of four minutes.

With 80 kilometers to go, the riders reached the first of two consecutive climbs, and that was the moment when Pomorski found the pace too fast. Maciejuk and Bernas remained in front, while from the peloton we saw mountain king Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) accelerate. The Belgian picked up the last mountain point and kept going, reaching the top of the next climb with the two leaders.

Mission accomplished for Kielich, as he was indeed the first to reach the top of the last climb of the day. This extended his lead in the mountain classification to 21 points. By then, the peloton had closed the gap to just under a minute. From the top, it would be mostly downhill to the finish in Cieszyn, where five virtually flat laps remained.

On the flat, it was too fast for Bernas, leaving only Kielich and Maciejuk in the lead. However, the Belgian soon let the Polish rider go, as the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider waited for the peloton. Maciejuk had to stay ahead of the peloton solo for almost 40 kilometers.

The Polish rider held on for a long time, after which Lorenzo Milesi also attacked in the last twenty kilometers. The Italian riding for Spain made the move to catch Maciejuk on the somewhat treacherous final circuit, but the peloton was already close behind. With only 2 kilometers to go, the brave duo had to settle for a bunch sprint.

Turning, twisting, turning again and twisting again, but in the end it came down to a sprint for the stage victory. Magnier was ultimately the one who sprinted to victory with superior strength, after his team had ridden at the front all day.