Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) accomplished a hat-trick on the Tour de Pologne when he sprinted to victory on the uphill finale to stage 6 at Bukovina Resort. The Belgian delivered one other well-timed effort from a severely diminished group to assert his third win of the week forward of Diego Ulissi (UAE Group Emirates) and Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL).
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) all the time regarded comfy on the rugged finale, and he got here residence fourth on the stage to retain the yellow jersey. The Dane carries a lead of 13 seconds over Ulissi into Sunday’s ultimate leg to Krakow.
Essentially the most demanding stage of the Tour de Pologne was animated by a positive solo effort from neo-professional Archie Ryan (EF Schooling-EasyPost), who has impressed each time the street has climbed throughout the week.
Ryan joined Tim Wellens (UAE Group Emirates), Mick van Dijke (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tobias Foss (Ineos) in bridging as much as earlier escapees Samuele Battistella (Astana-Qazaqstan), Davide Formolo (Movistar) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the primary ascent of Ściana Bukowina with 70km remaining.
With Van Dijke there to police affairs for Vingegaard, Visma-Lease a Bike had been content material to depart a lot of the pace-making within the peloton to others, with DSM more and more outstanding because the day drew on.
The entrance group started to splinter on the second ascent of Ściana Bukowina, by which level the bunch had closed virtually inside half a minute of the escapees. Wellens attacked forcefully with 17km remaining, however Ryan responded with curiosity, forging clear forward of the steepest part of the climb.
Ryan proceeded to bounce on the pedals all the best way up the ‘wall’ of Bukowina, the place he succeeded in sustaining a buffer of half a minute on the chasers, and he nonetheless had 25 seconds in hand when he crested the summit with 12km remaining.
Over the opposite facet, Bahrain Victorious had been lively in pursuing Ryan, however the Wicklow native nonetheless had 11 seconds in hand when he hit the unclassified ultimate climb to the end. His courageous effort was solely snuffed out with 2.5km remaining, when Romain Bardet dragged a really diminished yellow jersey group as much as Ryan on behalf of Onley.
Within the ultimate 2km, Vingegaard discovered himself on the entrance, although the Dane was in defensive mode right here, and he was content material to permit Yanis Voissard (Tudor) take a flyer with 1.6km remaining. The Swiss carried a slender lead into the ultimate kilometre, however he was reeled in by the chasing of Rafal Majka on behalf of Ulissi.
Majka led deep into the ultimate kilometre earlier than Ben Hermans (Cofidis) tried his luck from distance within the uphill dash. As soon as he light, Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) hit entrance the entrance, however the Dutchman was rapidly handed by Ulissi, all the time so knowledgeable in finales akin to this.
Ulissi, nevertheless, has met his match on hilltop finales in Poland this week. Nys, who had appeared to be struggling decrease down the climb, made his method to the entrance at simply the precise second, and the Belgian’s ending kick brooked no argument as he collected his ninth victory of a glowing marketing campaign.
Ulissi took second forward of Onley and Vingegaard, whereas Kelderman held on for fifth place within the 25-strong entrance group.
Vingegaard is now on the cusp of general victory with simply Sunday’s flat run to Krakow to come back. The 2-time Tour de France winner leads Ulissi by 13 seconds whereas Kelderman lies third at 20 seconds.
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