Tour de Pologne: Jonas Vingegaard wins stage 6

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Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won a three-way breakaway sprint that secured him the stage 6 victory and moved him into the overall lead at the Tour de Pologne. The 22-year-old Dane launched his sprint first with roughly 300 metres to go to beat Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) and Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) in Kościelisko.

The three riders broke clear of the reduced group on the final climb to Gubałówka that peaked roughly 2.5km from the finish line in Kościelisko. Hindley led the breakaway down the tricky descent and onto the city streets, through the last corners and into the final 500 metres. Vingegaard used Hindley's effort as a springboard to launch his winning sprint with 300 metres to go, leaving his two companions to race in for minor places on the podium.

Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) crossed the line eight seconds in arrears. A third group that included some of the main GC contenders crossed the line another two seconds back.

Vingegaard moved into the overall leader's jersey that had previously been worn by Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) since he won the opening field sprint on stage 1. Vingegaard heads into the final stage 7 on Friday with a four-second advantage over Sivakov and six seconds to Hindley. 

"It still hasn't sunk in. It's great," Vinegaard said. "The boys worked well today. When my group returned to the group of Antwan, I still felt good. Therefore, I chose to attack. I knew that I had a good chance in the sprint, but the fact that I managed to finish it off, is fantastic. Tomorrow I will try to defend the jersey. It will be a difficult stage, just like today's."

Vinegaard dedicated his stage victory to Bjorg Lambrecht, who tragically died following a crash at during stage 3 of the race. "I dedicate this victory to Bjorg Lambrecht," he said. "Cycling is in mourning and it is unreal to lose a colleague like that. This way I honour Bjorg."

How it unfolded

The peloton faced five laps of a 29km hilly circuit for the sixth stage of the Tour de Pologne, and each lap included a steep climb up to Pitoniówka. The was also one climb to Gubałówka before the descent to the finish in Kościelisko.

Four riders formed the early breakaway, including Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal), Simon Geschke (CCC Team), Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale) and Petr Vakoc (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

The quartet pushed their lead out to just over two minutes, but that was reduced to 1:30 as Astana led the peloton behind for their GC riders Miguel Angel Lopez and Dario Cataldo. Team Ineos and Jumbo-Visma also sent several riders to the fore to help manage the time gap to the breakaway.

The breakaway fell apart over the main climb on the third lap, the ascent to Pitoniówka, with Geschke going along off the front. Behind the peloton also split into several groups as the overall contenders slashed the gap to Geschke down to just 30 seconds before reaching the top. A short lull in the field allowed the four breakaway riders to reform, but they were all reeled in shortly after that.

With 40km to go, the peloton split into three main groups. Ten riders, including the likes of Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), took the reins, while smaller groups chased frantically behind to close the gaps.

Of the front select group, Tsgabu Grmay (Mitchelton-Scott) made the first strong attack over the first of three final climbs in the closing 30km of the race. He was joined by Ben Swift (Team Ineos) just ahead of the penultimate climb of the day, and the last ascent to Pitoniówka.

Swift upped the pace on the climb, just enough to cause Grmay to fall off the pace. The British road champion continued alone, cresting the summit to take maximum points, but more importantly in pursuit of the stage victory and in an attempt to move up from third overall in the GC.

The road continued to rise gently after crossing under the KOM banner. Swift looked back to see the colours of Jumbo-Visma, along with Majka and Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the front of the reduced group just 20 seconds back. His teammates Geoghagan Hart and Sivakov would later thank Swift because his short-lived breakaway gave them some reprieve during the closing kilometres in the chase group.

The chase lacked any significant organisation, however, until they hit the final 4.4km climb to Gubałówka, and Swift's 10-second advantage vanished. Vingegaard, Hindley, and James Knox (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Sivikov caught and passed Swift on the steep slopes.

Both Swift and Knox fell off the back almost immediately, but Sivakov held strong among the front trio, with Vingegaard and Hindley, as they climbed to Gubałówka.

The road flattened out and then kicked up one last time before Vingegaard, Hindley and Sivakov finally reached the top with less than 2.5km to go. The trio set themselves up for the fast descent toward the finish city of Kościelisko led by Hindley. It was Vingegaard who proved strongest of the three, winning the stage and moving into the overall lead.

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