Tour de Pologne stage 3: Rafał Majka rises to victory on steep finish

UAE Team Emirates came into stage 3 with revenge on their mind, following João Almeida’s second-place finish on the previous day. Duly, it was Almeida’s teammate Rafał Majka who was able to secure their first victory of the Tour de Pologne. The former Polish national champion outsprinted race leader Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) and compatriot Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) in the closing metres of a brutally steep uphill finish.

A quartet of riders went up the road in search of a healthy advantage to take into the steep finale, in a move initiated by Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) who was soon joined by Jacopo Mosca (Lidl-Trek), Bastien Tronchon (AG2R Citroën) and Mick van Dijke (Jumbo-Visma). Their lead swelled out to over four minutes before Mohorič sent his teammates to the front to curtail the breakaway’s hopes, with Ineos Grenadiers later helping to pace the peloton as they neared the final test.

The Tour de Pologne is defined by a series of mountainous days that are consistently too tough for the sprinters, but not quite hard enough to see out and out GC specialists come to the fore. It is a race for the hilly Classics men. Stage 3 was no different and once more saw Ineos Grenadiers produce determined work on behalf of their leader and winner of the 2018 edition, Kwiatkowski.

Having survived the final climb along with 24 other riders, however, Kwiatkowski felt aggrieved by Majka’s eventual sprint, which saw him deviate across the road slightly and cut off the former world champion’s trajectory. Nevertheless, the result stood and Majka held on for the win ahead of Mohorič, who continued to impress and retained the race lead he secured the previous day.

Majka’s victory propels him up to second on GC, level on time with Almeida and 10 seconds down on Mohorič. Tomorrow’s stage should be a sprint finish before the race favourites resume hostilities on stage 5 and the all-important individual time trial on stage 6.