Fabio Jakobsen remains the highest-ranked Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider in the GC.
It was another day for the fast men at the Tour de Pologne, where the peloton rolled out from Tarnowskie Góry and embarked on a 153.3km-long trip to Katowice, a stage finish for the tenth time in as many years. Two men instigated a move, but despite carving out a 5:30 advantage over the peloton, Pawel Franczak (Poland National Team) and Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk) were an easy pray for the chasers, who overhauled them 15 kilometers from home.
Bob Jungels and Petr Vakoč combined forces at the head of the bunch inside the closing kilometers, stretching out the field before the flamme rouge, but then chaos ensued on the complicated downhill finish in Katowice, which didn’t allow any team to actually control the bunch sprint, thus leading to a hectic finale, with riders spread out all over the road. From this chaos, Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) emerged to take the win, ahead of Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe).
Third in Krakow twenty-four hours earlier, Dutch champion Fabio Jakobsen was brought into position by the experienced Fabio Sabatini, but because of the disorder generated in the last kilometer he couldn’t fight for victory and concluded in 15th position. Fabio, who is racing the Tour de Pologne for the first time in his career, will have another opportunity on Monday, when the race will visit Zabrze.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images
