Tour de Pologne stage 4: Remco Evenepoel in a league of his own

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) took control of the Tour de Pologne with an stunning 51km solo move on the queen stage of the race.

The 20-year-old attacked from the leader's group with over one lap to go and crested four remaining climbs on his own, fending off Jakob Fuglsang, Rafał Majka and Simon Yates. Coming to the finish line in Bukowina Tatrzańska, Evenepoel held up a '75' bib number in an emotional tribute to his teammate Fabio Jakobsen who suffered severe injuries in a crash on stage 1.

Fuglsang crossed the finish line in 2nd, 1:48 down, while Yates came in third, 2:22 down. Meanwhile, Evenepoel moved into the race lead, taking the jersey from Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos), who crashed earlier in the day and finished 3:21 down. Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider now leads Fuglsang by 1:52 and Yates by 2:28 ahead of the final stage.

"Today was my day. We had a plan to attack a bit later, but I saw that 50 kilometres to go was the moment: everybody was suffering because yesterday was a really hard race. Everybody believed in me and that gave me confidence", Evenepoel said during a short press conference after the podium ceremony.

"This celebration was actually already in my mind yesterday, so I just wanted to take Fabio's number in case of winning. This morning I asked the press officer to fix me a number of Fabio. From the moment I had it in my hands, I felt something special in my mind and my body. I said 'ok, no matter how hard it will be, I will just fight to the end and keep going. I will be suffering but Fabio is suffering much more…' that gave me the energy."

"I saw everybody suffering, me as well, and I thought 'now is the time, if I take 2-3 guys with me, it's perfect, the race will be done'. But nobody could follow and then I quite quickly gained a gap of 30 seconds. I kept going because I knew that in the peloton only one guy was pulling, so it was me against him. With the number in my back [pocket] I didn't feel tired, my energy was there and never went away. It really gave me energy for this 51 kilometres."

How it unfolded

The queen stage once again took riders to Bukowina Tatrzańska, a village in Tatra County, where a well-known mountainous loop offered testing climbs: Rzepiska (2km at 6.5 per cent), Gliczarów (5.5km at 5.6 per cent) and an uncategorised climb of Wierch Rusiński (1.7 km at 7.2 per cent) following it. Similarly to previous years, the final climb led back up to the village and averaged 4.8 per cent at 3 kilometres.

With three 48.5km laps on the schedule and small gaps separating top riders, there were multiple teams interested in keeping their riders safe on the narrow roads in the early stage of racing.

As Jumbo-Visma's Chris Harper and Cofidis' Nathan Haas formed an early breakaway, things calmed down and Team Ineos started setting the pace in the main peloton. The duo passed the first categorized climb ahead of the bunch but since the gap was still relatively small, with mountains classification hopeful Patryk Stosz (Polish National Team) in pursuit.

The Pole received help from James Whelan (EF Pro Cycling) and Kamil Małecki (CCC Team), which allowed him to make the junction and form a five-man breakaway. Ahead of the first Gliczarów climb the group established a four-minute lead, even though first year professional Małecki, who started the stage third in the general classification, was looking at the virtual race lead.

While Harper collected maximum points on the first climb, Haas was first atop the second one, Gliczarów. Team Ineos meanwhile pushed the pace and soon saw only about 40 riders left in Richard Carapaz's group by the time the climb was crested. The gap dropped accordingly, more so since Haas and his companions waited for Małecki to get back after a puncture.

Stosz showed interest in building a bigger lead in the mountains classification and took points atop the third categorized climb. His hopes of being allowed to take more were being quickly trumped by the chasing group, although Team Ineos slowed things down, allowing for a regrouping.

The race looked ready to blow at that point, with Ineos, Mitchelton-Scott and Bora-Hansgrohe all lining up at the front and trimming down the gap to the leaders. Haas managed to recover enough to get more points atop Gliczarów, at the second time of asking, while Stosz was dropped on the steepest incline.

Things were about to end for the breakaway when a crash interrupted the bunch with 67 kilometres to go. Race leader Richard Carapaz was on the ground together with Ryan Gibbons and multiple other riders. The Ecuadorian got back on the bike and was escorted to the front by Michał Gołaś, although skin rashes on his back and leg heralded trouble.

Mitchelton-Scott waited for the race leader and later took charge of things on the uncategorised climb. The narrow climb stretched out the remains of the peloton and the Australian team went on the offensive. Carapaz responded and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) shut the move down himself. With 54 kilometres remaining, the breakaway riders were back in the group and racing began anew, yet with Team Ineos' resources severely depleted.

A number of half-hearted attacks followed until Evenepoel launched a solo move with 51 kilometres to go. The Belgian sprinted away from the group and quickly gained ground on an undulating section. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) wasn't going to let that pass but found no cooperation in the group: Mitchelton-Scott and Bora-Hansgrohe riders were happy to see Team Ineos lead the chase, although banged up Carapaz only had Edward Dunbar at his side.

The Belgian climbed up Rzepiska for the last time 20 seconds ahead of the chasers and extended his lead to 45 seconds with 36 kilometres to go. Dunbar tried to force his opponents to contribute and attacked but a group he formed with Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Fuglsang wasn't going anywhere. More attacks followed but to no avail and finally, when Evenepoel's gap came close to a minute, Rafał Majka made his move.

Bora-Hansgrohe rider was quickly joined by Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Fuglsang with 26 kilometres to go but their effort did not threaten the lone leader. Dunbar was back on the pacing duty for Carapaz, however, with no team willing to cooperate, the group started falling behind.

The Irishman had no more to give with 16 kilometres to go and no help was in sight for the race leader. Giro d'Italia winner upped the pace but only Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) were interested, while Patrick Konrad and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) covered the move. Evenepoel's glory felt more real with every pedal stroke.

The Belgian, now in time-trial mode, still had a minute over Yates, Fuglsang and Majka coming into the third climb up Gliczarów. The Dane looked strongest of the three and managed to shake both rivals off his wheel but Evenepoel was way out of his reach.

Starting the final ascent 1:18 ahead of Fuglsang and 2 minutes in front of the yellow jersey, the flying 20-year-old had all the time he needed to prepare the celebration. There was no victory gesture, however. Evenepoel reached into his back pocket and held up Fabio Jakobsen's bib number in the final meters of the stage, a silent dedication to his injured teammate.