The top pre-race favourite for victory in the 2026 Tour de Pologne, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), has been forced to pull out prior to stage 5 as a result of his injuries from the late stage 4 mass crash.
Around 30 to 40 riders fell late on stage 4's hilly run from Zagan to Karpacz on a fast, waterlogged downhill section of road, leading to a 40-minute suspension of racing as ambulances attended the injured.
Almeida's teammates, Benoît Cosnefroy and Juan Sebastian Molano, both of whom were caught up in the crash, had to immediately abandon.
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Almeida struggled on despite a very large scrape being visible on his upper left leg and ripped team kit, but he finished 16 minutes down on stage winner Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) - also a faller in the same incident, but not so badly affected.
UAE posted to X on Friday that despite finishing, Almeida will not be taking part in the remainder of the race, which he already won in 2021 and was very narrowly defeated by Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) in 2022.
On the plus side, UAE said, there were "no fractures and all three guys will now head home to rest up for their races to come."
Discussing the crash immediately after stage 4 with Polish website Naszosie.pl, Almeida said, "Of course I don't feel well; it wasn't a good day.
"I feel some pain in my knee and ankle, but I think I'll be fine. Most likely, I managed to avoid any fractures; I'm just needing some minor tweaks. It is what it is.
"The asphalt was practically like ice. It was super, super slippery, you couldn't do anything. Plus, the speed was so high, we were just falling over each other, unable to avoid it."
He told Naszosie.pl that he hoped to be at the start for stage 5, but that was finally not possible.
Almeida is set to play a right-hand role for Tadej Pogačar in the fast-upcoming Vuelta a España, which begins on August 22 in Monaco.
Initial plans for Almeida to use the Vuelta a Burgos, which runs concurrently with Pologne this week, as a preparation event for the Vuelta were scrapped over the summer in favour of the Central European WorldTour race.
The most successful week-long stage racer in 2025 thanks to his victories in Romandie, Suisse and Itzulia Basque Country, as well as a podium finisher in the Vuelta a España and able to defeat Jonas Vingegaard on the Angliru, the 28-year-old has endured a miserable season so far.
A strong start in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve was followed by persistent illness that left him out for the count in the Volta a Catalunya and then unable to race his first main target of the year, the Giro d'Italia.
Almeida continued to be a shadow of his normal self at Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, with any plans for a return to the Tour de France definitively ditched by that point, and a restart was planned for Pologne. However, any plans Almeida may well have had to repeat his 2021 overall victory five years on subsequently came badly unstuck due to stage 4's mass crash.
