Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers) snatched the stage victory from Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) on the uphill finish to Bukowina Tatrzańska at the Tour de Pologne, to take a historic win for the Montecarlo rider.
McNulty was disappointed to be caught in sight of the finish but the American took six bonus seconds and gained more seconds on Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) before their expected clash in Sunday's final time trial.
Langellotti took a 10-second time bonus for his victory and so took the leader's yellow jersey, 10 seconds ahead of McNulty.
Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is third overall at 22 seconds, as is Tiberi.
Victor Langellotti won stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The 147.5km stage covered 2,800 metres of climbing during three circuits of a hilly loop around Bukowina before the four-kilometre gradual climb to the finish line. With Sunday's final 12.5km time trial around Wieliczka, the climbing would be the last chance for teams to shake-up the GC standings.
There were a number of non-starters, including Michał Kwiatkowski and Magnus Sheffield of Ineos Grenadiers.
The stage started fast with a series of attacks but the first real breakaway of the day only formed after 20km. Surprisingly Olav Kooij and Matt Brennan were in the nine-rider move, as was Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), perhaps hoping the break could stay away.
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Chris Hamilton (Picnic-PostNL) was also there and soon became the virtual race leader.
Decathlon-AG2R were forced to lead the chase and were helped by EF Education-EasyPost, who then sent Marijn van den Berg and Colby Simmons across to the attack. The peloton, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG doing a lot of the work, watched and waited for the final lap and climb up to the finish.
Matt Brennan was part of the early attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the early sprint and mountain points but many riders in the attack were there as satellite riders for their teammates in the peloton. Kooij and Brennan were dropped on the climbs and fought back on as the gap to the peloton hovered at around 1:30.
Simmons attacked alone before the Ściana Harnaś - the Harnaś Wall but was soon caught as the race came back together and a select group of 50 riders formed.
The peloton and especially Florian Vermeersch (UAE) tried to hurt race leader Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R). The Frenchman was distanced but fought back on as the riders started the final 50km of racing.
The flat roads created a moment of pause in hostilities as teams waited for the climb to the line.
Alpecin-Deceuninck tried to force a split with 30km to go but were soon kept in check, as UAE again rode on the front with Vermeersch.
Colby Simmons jumped across to the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)
UAE's strategy became clearer at the intermediate sprint with 18km to go. UAE and Bahrain Victorious massed on the front and then McNulty charged away to take the three-second time bonus. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) took two seconds. Would those seconds be decisive in Sunday's time trial? Team tactics and the close GC standings deemed it was better to have them than not.
The final of the stage began immediately after the sprint when Simmons attacked again.
Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL) went with him, as Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) led the chase as the final climb of the Ściana Bukovina climb.
Rafał Majka took over on the front for UAE on the steepest part of the Bukovina wall climb. Lapeira was quickly dropped, losing any hope of defending the yellow jersey.
Stage 6 included a series of steep climbs (Image credit: Getty Images)
The front group soon split and then Tiberi attacked, taking McNulty and Enrico Zana (Jayco-AlUla) with him. Near the summit of the climb Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana) joined them with others, as the fight for the stage win and the GC battle combined. A group of 16 riders formed with 12km to race but kept attacking each other.
UAE had McNulty, Majka and Jan Christen in the group and so took turns to attack, along with other riders but the group stayed together to the foot of the climb to Bukowina Tatrzańska.
Majka sacrificed himself for McNulty and Christen early on the climb, setting a high pace on the climb.
Christen was the first to attack with two kilometres to go but was soon caught. Then McNulty went, was joined by Tiberi and got a gap. The US rider was strong and so pressed on alone into the final kilometre.
McNulty got a gap and seemed destined to win the stage. However, Langellotti had other ideas. He surged from the group using a big gear, closed the gap on McNulty and then passed him in sight of the line to snatch victory.
The fans were out to see Rafal Majka (Image credit: Getty Images)
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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