Tour de Pologne: Almeida wins stage 4

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João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) nabbed his second victory on stage 4 at the Tour de Pologne. Wearing the overall leader's jersey, Almeida jumped off of the slipstream of Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) and sprinted to the win at Bukovina Resort. Mohoric had to settle for second place while Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën) finished third.

Almeida increased his lead in the overall classification to eight seconds ahead of Mohoric and 14 seconds ahead of Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) as the race heads into stage 5’s 172.8km from Chochołów to Bielsko-Biała.

All of the breakaway riders were reeled back into the fold as the race headed toward the final at Bukovina Resort. Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) set a fast pace on the early slopes of the final climb that created separations at the front of the field. He was joined by teammate Mikkel Honoré, while overall leader Almeida sat back protected in the field.

Honoré continued on alone as Cavagna dropped back to the field, but UAE Team Emirates set a fast pace from behind, thinning out the field, as they tried to catch the lone escapee.

The roads kicked up with 2km to go and Honore held a gap small of 10 seconds. UAE continued to lead the race on the final ascent but they were taken over by Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Ineos Grenadiers and Lotto Soudal.

Honoré desperately tried to hold onto a sliver of a gap inside 500 metres, as Almeida came to the front of the field just in case his teammate was caught. 

Mohoric launched himself in an early sprint, passing Honoré, but Almeida proved strongest as he came around Mohoric and lunged to take his second stage victory at the Tour de Pologne.

How it unfolded

The fourth stage of the Tour de Pologne was 159.9km from Tarnów to Bukovina Resort and well-suited for the climbers with an uphill finish. The stage included two intermediate sprints sat Zakliczyn (28km) and Kroscienko nad Dunajcem (114km), and three categorized ascents at Lubinka (15km), Chomranice (62km) and before the final climb at Łapszanka (150km).

Łukasz Owsian (Team Arkéa Samsic) picked up full points over the first climb just 15km into the stage and increased his lead in the mountain classification.

The day’s early breakaway of five were Larry Warbasse (AG2R Citroën Team), Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), and Marco Canola (Gazprom-RusVelo). 

Hermans took the points at the intermediate sprint in Zakliczyn, and even though he was the highest placed GC rider of the breakaway at 40 seconds behind overall leader João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep), he then sat up and waited for the peloton.

The breakaway pushed their lead out to four minutes as they approached the next climb over Chomranice, 5km at 4 per cent, with Theuns taking the mountain points over the top. He also won the intermediate sprint in Kroscienko nad Dunajcem.

Deceuninck-QuickStep set a pace from the main field to keep the gap at a more manageable two minutes. 

As the gap reduced, Alexis Renard (Israel Start-Up Nation) jumped from the field to try and bridge to the breakaway, however, his efforts seemed futile as the gap to the solo chaser and the main breakaway fell to one minute ahead of the final categorized mountain, Łapszanka.

Theuns fell off the pace on the climb, but despite the efforts of Trek-Segafredo behind, Canola, Valter and Warbasse managed to stretch their lead back out to 30 seconds nearing the top. Warbasse was the next to drop and then Canola, as Valter continued over the top alone.

Valter descended with 20 seconds in hand as the peloton bore down behind him inside the final 10km of the race, but that gap was slashed in half inside 7km as Ineos Grenadiers led the chase. Valter was caught 6km out from an uphill finish at Bukovina Resort.