Tour de Pologne: Nikias Arndt wins stage 5

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Team DSM’s Nikias Arndt charged to the line in an uphill frenzy to win stage 5 of the Tour of Poland. The German won his first race of the year in a photo finish, beating Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) and Stefano Oldani (Lotto Soudal), who took second and third, respectively.

João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who sprinted to fourth on the stage, kept a narrow GC advantage over Mohoric, who took bonus points in the finish and is just two seconds back in the overall.

The final breakaway rider of the day, Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Fenix), was caught after the three circuits in Bielsko-Biała had been completed and the pace increased significantly. It was the Ineos Grenadiers squad that led the chase to catch the Alpecin-Fenix rider with 3.3km to go. 

Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) was positioned third man from the front when with 1.6km to go a group of riders went down at a median in the road, followed by more riders colliding in the road at 1km to go. Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux took up the reins with three riders out front in the final stretch, but were swarmed by all the leading teams on the 3.7 per cent gradient of the uphill finish. 

The top three pushed their bikes to the line together, Arndt making the best of the throws to win by centimetres after 172.8 kilometres.

"The team put me in a really good position on the last lap and I could benefit from that in the finish. Riders came from the left and right but I managed to push again. It was a long, long sprint for me and in the end Mohoric came pretty close and we weren’t sure who actually won to start with, but in the end it was enough for me. I’m super happy I could take it for the team," Arndt said in post-race comments.

Mohorič not only gained six seconds on GC to creep closer to Almeida’s lead, with two days to go, but moved ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) for the points classification lead. 

Łukasz Owsian (Poland) continued his lead in the mountains classification, spending the majority of his day in an original, six-rider breakaway.

How it unfolded

The distance between Chochołów and Bielsko-Biała provided panoramic views of the Tatra Mountains that brought little time for sightseeing by the peloton. Organisers called this the toughest of the seven days of racing, with a trio of first-category climbs and then three full circuits leading to a fourth and final ascent of Bukowina Tatrzańska, the race climbing two-thirds of the 2.3km slope before the uphill sprint to the line. While it is only 3.7 per cent in gradient, the multiple ascents combined with increased urgency to the finish make this more challenging in person than on the map.

The first climb, Przełęcz Krowiarki (5.1km at 5.1 per cent), was positioned 51.5km into the race, followed by Kocierz (3.1km at 5.8 per cent) at kilometre 109, and Przegibek Górska (6.4km at 5 per cent), which the peloton will tackle 38km from the finish and just before hitting three final circuits. There was one intermediate sprint at kilometre 114 at Gmina Andrychów. 

Eight kilometres into racing, Rickaert surged from the peloton and was joined two kilometres later by five riders: Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana-Premier Tech), Daniel Arroyave (EF Education-Nippo), Robert Power (Team Qhubeka-NextHash), Emīls Liepinš (Trek-Segafredo), and Owsian, who was the closest threat to Almeida, 9:10 out of GC contention.

Heading into the first categorised climb, Przełęcz Krowiarki, the highest point of the day at 1,019 metres, the breakaway of six riders had pushed their margin to 4:15.

Liepinš was the first rider to crest the climb and gained maximum points, followed by Owsian and Arroyave, to put Owsian 10 points ahead of Arroyave in the KOM standings.

With 100km to go and on the descent, the six pushed their advantage out to 3:54, Astana-Premier Tech and Deceuninck-QuickStep setting the pace behind, but with no real urgency.

It was a sunny, calm day as the six worked together with constant rotations through lush countryside. As the road began to wind through a deep forest on the banks for the second categorised climb of the day, Power lost contact with the front group. At the top of the climb, Liepinš takes the climbing honours again followed by the same pair as earlier.

Six kilometres later, the Intermediate sprint was taken by EF Education’s Arroyave without any tests from the small group. Ineos Grenadiers took up the charge at the front on the descent from that point, and headed to the final categorised climb, escorting Kwiatkowski, fourth on GC, to a finish he had won in 2018.

The gap to the leading quartet began to drop, however, falling under two minutes as the climb began on the third and final category 1 climb, Przegibek Górska, with a section of 11 per cent across its 6.4km distance.

A surge from a pair of riders with 42km to go - Kobe Goossens (Lotto Soudal)  and Sean Bennett (Qhubeka-NextHash) - did not worry the peloton at this point, and they made their way up the climb in tandem.

At the front of the race at the 40.7km to go mark, Rickaert asserted himself with a move at the front of the break, controlling his effort to increase the pace towards the top of the climb. Polka-dot jersey Owsian was the only one to put his head down to catch Rickaert near the top, and take the double serving of climbing points at the summit.

Rickaert then took his opportunity to go solo as the pair plunged together on the descent and hit the first of three full circuits with 43-seconds over the chasers.  

With 27km to go, that lead vanished and three riders tagged along with Rickaert - Larry Warbasse (AG2R Citroën), Tomasz Marczyński (Lotto Soudal), and Bennett. The foursome enjoyed a slim 37-second advantage while Ineos Grenadiers worked at the front of the charging peloton once the first lap was completed and there was 22km to go.

By the third lap, the peloton had the foursome in its sights on the long straight to the finish line as the leaders started to show some suffering on their faces, but continued with 12 seconds in their favour. This was a signal to Rickaert, who attacked his breakaway partners with 5km to go for a last effort to steal the stage from the closing peloton. 

Ineos Grenadiers ended the long break for the Alpecin-Fenix rider with 3.3km to go. The GC favourites avoided the disruptions of the late crashes to storm to the finish, with Arndt making the most of his final effort for the win.