A late solo attack on a crash-marred trek through the rain-soaked hills of south-west Poland earned Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) the victory and the overall lead on a shortened stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne.
Dropped by Lemmen on the large Cat.1 ascent of Karpacz, runner-up Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) then clawed his way back on a final 1.5-kilometre ramp with enough power almost to steal the show from the Dutch climber, but the Visma-Lease a Bike rider just hung on for his first-ever pro win victory by a couple of bike lengths. Third was Axel Laurance (Netcompany-Ineos), around 14 seconds back at the head of a splintering peloton.
The stage was marred by a major crash some 40 kilometres from the line, which saw racing suspended for nearly 40 minutes as ambulances attended the injured amongst the 30-40 fallen. One of their number was leading race favourite João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), able to continue but with a large cut in his left leg causing him to sit up before the finale.
After such a major accident, fears of more crashes on waterlogged descents saw one of the two final climbs, the Cat.1 Borowice, removed from the course. There was still enough climbing, though, for a four-rider break including the day's winner, Lemmen, to go clear.
More to come...
Breakaway riders Patryk Stosz of Team Poland, Dries De Bondt of Jayco AlUla, Tobiasz Pawlak of Team Poland and Matteo Malucelli of XDS Astana wait for race to restart with 40.1km to go, neutralisation caused by crash in peloton behind on wet roads (Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage 4 Results
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Top 10
Place
Full Name (Team)
Diff
1
Bart Lemmen (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
3:54:45
2
Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team)
+0:00:00
3
Axel Laurance (Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team)
+0:00:14
4
Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling Team)
+0:00:14
5
Louis Barré (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
+0:00:16
6
Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana Team)
+0:00:16
7
Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM Team)
+0:00:16
8
Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
+0:00:16
9
Aaron Dockx (Alpecin-Premier Tech)
+0:00:16
10
Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility)
+0:00:16
General Classification after stage 4
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Top 10
Place
Full Name (Team)
Diff
1
Bart Lemmen (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
16:16:12
2
Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team)
+0:00:06
3
Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling Team)
+0:00:26
4
Matteo Sobrero (Lidl-Trek)
+0:00:27
5
Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
+0:00:28
6
Louis Barré (Team Visma | Lease a Bike)
+0:00:28
7
Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM Team)
+0:00:28
8
Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana Team)
+0:00:28
9
Aaron Dockx (Alpecin-Premier Tech)
+0:00:28
10
Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility)
+0:00:30
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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