Tour de Pologne: Rémi Cavagna wins stage 6 time trial in Katowice

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Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the stage 6 individual time trial at the Tour de Pologne, taking the second victory in a race against the clock this season.

The Frenchman clocked 22:10 on the 19-kilometre course around Katowice, enough to beat his teammate and the race leader João Almeida by 12 seconds and Polish champion Maciej Bodnar (Bora-hansgrohe) by 16 seconds.

Almeida maintained his grip on the general classification and will seal the overall victory tomorrow on a sprint stage in Kraków. The young Portuguese rider, winner of stages 2 and 4, managed to extend his lead over Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) to 20 seconds and hold off Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), who moved up to third overall after clocking 5th time on the day.

“I am really happy with the victory, it was my objective at the Tour de Pologne. A time trial is something I like. It was a perfect distance for me. 20 kilometres is not too long, not too short, you can really make the difference. We are really happy with the team because we finished 1-2," Cavagna said in a flash interview with TVP Sport.

“It was a difficult course with the sun and the wind. I did a good first part because it is important to start really well. I then just kept the power till the end. It was a technical time trial, so I didn’t take any risks in the corners. I saw one of my teammates crash in the last corner. I was a bit scared, so I didn’t take all the risks but it was enough for the victory.”

How it unfolded

With all the hilly stages done and dusted, the 19.1km time trial provided the final test for the GC riders. The race returned to Katowice, site of Fabio Jakobsen’s horrific crash in August last year, this time for a largely flat route, suited to time trial specialists. 

The riders had to save some power for two small inclines in the second part of the course and navigate two technical sections. The first one came at the 8km intermediate time check and the second was marked by two corners in the final kilometre.

Scheduled for the afternoon, the stage was held in warm weather conditions, with the temperature hitting 30 degrees Celsius.

There were two crashes in the last corner among the early starters, with Stijn Steels (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Tom Bohli (Cofdis) hitting the deck.

Max Walscheid’s time was the first benchmark for all the time triallists. The German rolled over the course in 22:31, averaging 50.6 kph. His effort was soon bested by three seconds as Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) completed his run. The duo was challenged by Nikias Arndt (Team DSM) at the intermediate check but the German rider fell 10 seconds short of Dane’s time.

Riding in the national champions’ jersey Maciej Bodnar put in a strong ride, unseating Bjerg from the hot seat by a margin of two seconds. The Pole stayed on top of the table for a few minutes and anxiously watched as Remi Cavagna smashed the intermediate times and flew back down to the city centre. The 26-year-old Frenchman was gaining almost a second per kilometre over Bodnar and Bjerg, finishing in 22:10 and comfortably taking the lead.

Cavagna at this point had to wait for João Almeida and Michał Kwiatkowski, arguably the best time triallists among the race favourites. The Pole, who was battling for the place on the race podium with Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), was 13 seconds slower than Cavagna after 8 kilometres but managed to cut into the lead of all the top three riders. He was a second faster than Ulissi at the intermediate point, three seconds faster than Almeida, and held six seconds over Mohoric.

Ulissi and Mohoric faded in the second part of the course, which allowed Kwiatkowski to jump from fourth to third overall. The Polish rider clocked fourth provisional time and gained respectively 17 and 13 seconds on the Italian and the Slovenian, but was forced to settle for fifth on the day as Almeida rolled over the line. The 23-year-old bowed down only to Cavagna and strengthen his position overall with a strong second place.