Paul Lapeira has won the second stage of the Tour de Pologne in an uphill finish that opened up the GC fight. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team have taken an important triumph and the race lead.
Stage 2 of the race began with a three-rider breakaway that didn’t offer the peloton too much challenge and resistance but went on to seek smaller goals in the race. Max Walker, Patrick Gamper and Tomasz Budzinski risked it in a shot for glory.
But several teams had interests in the peloton including UAE Team Emirates – XRG and Bahrain – Victorious who comfortably controlled the front group, whilst the leader’s team Visma did not have to take much wind throughout the day. With 22 kilometers to go Walker attacked and moved off the front by himself and was later caught with 5 kilometers to go.
Everyone’s focus was on the final ascent to Karpacz, officially 3.1 kilometers long at 6.7% (but with a few uphill kilometers leading up to it) provided an opportunity for the GC riders to face-off, even if on a climb where the gradients didn’t really allow for big attacks or differences.
INEOS Grenadiers led the way into the final kilometer and final sprint. Jan Christen launched his sprint very early on with 300 meters to go with Maxim van Gils in the wheel. These were the two main favourites but this was a sprint launched too early, and both men exploded in the final 100 meters whilst a few others came from behind.
Paul Lapeira instead came from the wheels behind and was the only man who could still accelerate in the final seconds of the stage, and rode himself to the stage win and race lead. Mathias Vacek was second on the day and Victor Langellotti rode to third.