Tour de Pologne: Pedersen nabs first win as world champion on stage 2

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Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took victory in a bunch sprint concluding stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne on Thursday.

The reigning road race world champion produced a well-timed move and denied Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a long dash for the line. Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep) rounded out the day’s podium.

Without Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) present due to injuries sustained in yesterday's crash, the yellow jersey was up for grabs. Polish rider Kamil Małecki (CCC Team) spent the day in the leader's jersey but did not contest the final sprint and Pedersen took over the leader's jersey, having received 10 bonus seconds.

"First of all, I would like to dedicate this victory to Jakobsen after his crash yesterday. I am super happy to dedicate it to him, [I wish] him a fast recovery, a comeback to life, to cycling", Pedersen said after the podium ceremony.

"We had a strategy from the beginning that we should do the sprint for me. Man, the team did a perfect job and I could finish it off. I don't know how it went behind me with Ackermann but it was just enough to keep him behind at the finish line. I am super happy to take the win in the jersey and show the team that I'm back in shape and back to racing strong," he added.

How it unfolded

151 kilometres awaited the peloton on day 2 of racing in Poland. Racing started without 4 riders, Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ), Eduard Prades (Movistar) and Damien Touze (Cofidis) all of whom suffered injuries in yesterday's crash. Since Jakobsen and Sarreau were classified 1-2 in the general standings, CCC Team's Kamil Małecki (3rd overall after stage 1) was given the leader's jersey. The Polish team initially tried to hand the jersey over to Jakobsen's teammates, arguing it would feel "inappropriate" to wear it; however, the race regulations would not allow for that gesture.

An undulating route from Opole to Zabrze kept the peloton on the roads of Silesian and Opole Voivodeships. With only a single categorized climb (3.9 km, 4.8%) appearing after 60 kilometres of racing, sprinters were once again primed to be in the spotlight on a 6km long lap in the final.

Stage 2 saw a return of familiar faces to the front of the race. Maciej Paterski (Polish National Team) and Julius van den Berg (EF Pro Cycling) once again joined forces in the breakaway yet received no help from other riders.

The duo quickly built up a gap in excess of 6 minutes and passed the only categorized climb of the day well ahead of the pack. Van den Berg, who started the day in the mountain's classification jersey, took the points at the summit, while Paterski won two subsequent intermediate sprints.

Bora-Hansgrohe, Mitchelton-Scott and Lotto Soudal kept their riders at the front of the bunch with Maciej Bodnar setting the pace again and slowly trimmed the gap down. With 45 kilometres left the clock stood at 3 minutes, heralding doom for the two-man move.

Paterski and Van den Berg soldiered on, hoping to show their colours on the first of three local laps in Zabrze. Behind them, Bodnar started receiving help from Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and the gap dropped sharply below the minute mark as the escapees entered the final 30 kilometres.

As the teams started bringing forward their fast men, Paterski and Van den Berg were soon in sight and were passed by De Gendt with 16 kilometres to go. Once again Bahrain-McLaren, Trek-Segafredo and Team Ineos made their presence known up front, guarding their protected riders.

Setting up the trains for top sprinters was disrupted briefly by a solo move from Patryk Stosz of the Polish National Team, who managed a kilometre effort in front of the bunch before being brought back with 5.5km to go. From then on multiple teams fought for positions as winding roads inside the last 3 kilometres stretched the bunch.

Trek-Segafredo and Bora-Hansgrohe timed their efforts best and launched themselves into the final kilometre. As Alex Kirsch, Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns brought the world champion forward, Michael Schwarzmann and Rüdiger Selig followed, guiding Pascal Ackermann into position. Pedersen played to his strengths and launched the sprint first. The Dane took the lead and held it all the way to the line despite Ackermann's attempt to take the victory on the line.

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