Tour de Pologne: Jonathan Milan powers to victory in stage 1 bunch sprint

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) has claimed his first-ever stage win in the Tour de Pologne as the Italian National Champion picked the right route through a chaotic bunch sprint for victory and the opening lead.

Second was French fastman Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), initially sticking close to Milan in the narrow, twisting city-centre finale in Koszalin, but unable to match his rival's last blast up a short slope to the finish. Third was late attacker Noah Hobbs (EF Education-EasyPost).

The closing minutes of the flat, mammoth 234.2 kilometre stage across northern Poland saw the bunch sweep up a five-man move of the day then claw back lone late breakaway Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla) just after the final corner.

EF Education-EasyPost tried to surprise the sprinters via a long acceleration from Hobbs and a teammate in the final kilometre. But despite losing his lead-out man as the bunch swelled back and forth across the technical, undulating, run-in, Milan's last blast up the right-hand side proved more than enough for his first win in the Italian national champion's jersey by two bike lengths.

A 210-kilometre breakaway

The flag had barely dropped in the northerly seaport of Gydnia on what is by far the longest stage of the 2026 race before six riders took off: Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Patrick Gamper (Jacyo-AlUla), Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike), Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility), Kamil Malecki (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Radosław Frątczak (Poland). In the space of less than 15 kilometres, the half-dozen opened up a healthy gap as the two main sprinters' squads, Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep, kept nominal control of the peloton behind.

Riding on gently undulating but uncomplicated terrain, whilst the move was collaborating well, rather than risk any surprises, Lidl and Soudal ensured the six-rider break's advantage was squeezed down to just over 90 seconds and then held at roughly that margin for hour after hour. The status quo was only broken by tussles for the intermediate sprints, with local racer Malecki, one of two Poles up front, picking up the first two and his compatriot Frątczak subsequently claiming both of the second.

There was an important loss of strength in the break, however, when former Vuelta a España leader Molard opted to drop back - with the race beginning to heat up, that was anything but a welcome development for the remaining five ahead. With 60 kilometres to go, the gap had dropped to just over 30 seconds, too, a surefire sign that the peloton was finally gaining some kind of momentum following an extremely uneventful first four hours of racing.

Also pushing for a bunch sprint, EF Education-EasyPost added their collective shoulder to the wheel as Lidl further increased the pressure on the front. With smooth, flat roads adding to the challenge of staying away, the five opted for a group surrender to end their 210-kilometre break off the front.

Not waiting for the final, lone classified climb of the day, Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla) launched a gutsy late move, moving onto smaller roads with a scant 100-metre advantage. After over 200 kilometres of racing, the gentle, very short parkland ascent of Gora Chelmska proved much tougher than it looked. All the same, De Bondt managed to stay away right over the top of the climb to claim maximum points in the mountains classification.

Coming over the top, De Bondt had an advantage of less than 10 seconds, and given the flat terrain that followed, it was impossible for him to defy the sprinters for any longer. Rather than let any more breakaways get any ideas, Decathlon CMA CGM and Red Bull then provided yet more momentum to the pack before a series of corners, squeezes and broad highway following in very quick succession and making it much more complicated to control.

After a fast left-hand bend was taken by Decathlon on the front, an EF duo moved ahead and began to line out the pack, before a final curve put most of the main sprinters back into the mix. Of all of them, Milan was arguably the worst place, nearly 10 riders back and seemingly out of contention, but his late blast was simply unmatchable.

Stage 2 from Międzyzdroje to Szczecin is much shorter, just 150.1 kilometres, but even flatter and will likely once again offer a second good chance to the sprinters, as well as for Milan to defend his leader's jersey.

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