Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) sprinted to the first WorldTour win of his career on a chaotic stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne, holding off Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) in Wałbrzych.
After a hectic final to the stage which saw a nasty crash, a race neutralisation, and a late catch of the break, Ineos Grenadiers hit the front late to lead out Turner. Polish racer Michał Kwiatkowski led out the uphill sprint, delivering Turner to the 200-metre mark, where he had no rivals in the final dash to the finish.
The sprint finish from a select lead group on hilliest day of the race concluded without race leader Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who was caught in a crash at 22km to go.
The crash, which involved several other riders on a descent through a forest, caused the race to be neutralised for 16 minutes before action restarted.
GC times were not taken on the stage, meaning only the stage win – taken wonderfully by Turner – was up for grabs.
With times neutralised at the finish, Lapeira holds on to the yellow jersey, retaining his margin of six seconds over Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), while Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers) remains third at eight seconds. Lapeira's Decathlon AG2R team said they would update his status later in the evening.
How it unfolded
The third stage of the Tour de Pologne took riders on a tough and hilly 159km course that started and ended in Wałbrzych, which included three ascents of the Przełecz Walimska (4.1km at 5.5%), three of the Przełecz Niedzwiedzica (1.2km at 8.8%), and one of Rzeczka (1.9km at 9.7%).
The seven ascents – six second-category climbs and one first-category at Rzeczka – totalled a very challenging 3,500 metres of climbing, the most of the race, with the final hill of Przełecz Niedzwiedzica coming 15km from the finish.
A series of attacks inside the opening 20km of the race resulted in two breakaway groups coming together out front to make up the break of the day. Alpecin-Deceuninck pair Timo Kielich and Fabio van den Bossche and Groupama-FDJ’s Rémi Cavagna were in the front group before being joined by seven more.
The trio saw Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep), Ide Schelling (XDS-Astana), Kelland O’Brien (Jayco-AlUla), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Reuben Thompson (Lotto), and Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) come across to make it 10 in the move.
The group raced out to a four-minute lead with Bahrain Victorious among the teams working at the head of the peloton. The 10 would stay together well into the stage, with Kielich racking up the most mountain points as he led the race over four of the opening five climbs.
By the time the move crested Rzeczka, 44km from the line, the attacks had started, while Kielich had taken 27 mountain points. The haul was to put him into the lead of the mountain classification, up nine points on previous leader Thomasz Budziński (Poland).
Reinderink and O’Brien remained up the road through the attacks, leading the race with a minute advantage into the final 40km as Kielich dropped back.
Behind them, Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates-XRG commanded the front of the peloton. Reinderink attempted a move over the day’s penultimate climb, Przełecz Walimska, dropping O’Brien before the Australian got back on.
The duo held 30 seconds over the top, before Reinderink dropped back at 25km to go. As he was caught, Diego Ulissi (XDS-Astana) led a counterattack from the peloton, taking Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) with him.
As the two attackers bridged across to O’Brien, a big crash in the peloton on the descent saw race leader Lapeira and Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) crash along with several others. The Frenchman would later abandon the race as a result.
The break, at that point hanging on with a 16-second lead, continued to race on, while the peloton slowed down, near-enough neutralising itself until the race organisation made the call to officially neutralise the stage.
The decision came at 15km to go due to all race medical teams being busy tending to those caught in the crash. At that point, the three riders of the break were 1:50 up the road, but organisers later announced that they would restart with a 40-second advantage.
Organisers and UCI commissaires could be seen consulting with riders on whether or not GC times should be neutralised at the finish, with the decision eventually taken that only the stage win would be up for grabs.
After a 16-minutes break, racing resumed with Visma-Lease a Bike massed on the front of the peloton for their man Matthew Brennan, though O’Brien’s Jayco-AlUla teammates sought to disrupt the chase.
Heading into the final 10km, the break held on to a 30-second advantage, while they kept on battling well into the final 5km, hanging on with 20 seconds.
Sensing their chance of staying away increasing as the line neared, the trio kept on rotating through and holding on to their slowly decreasing lead. At 2km, they had 12 seconds, but a group of 11 jumped out of the peloton 200 metres later. The two groups merged with 1.2km to go, but with Ineos Grenadiers missing the move, the British team gave chase.
There wasn’t much coordination in the newly formed lead group, which only had a lead of a handful of seconds in any case, and so Ineos brought it all back together for the closing sprint at 700 metres to go.
They’d have reason to celebrate soon afterwards, as Turner delivered the second victory of his career and Ineos Grenadiers’ 23th of the season with an unmatchable uphill sprint.
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