Tour de Pologne stage 4: Olav Kooij soars to sprint victory

Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) came out on top on stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne, triumphing convincingly in the bunch sprint in Opole.

Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) finished runner-up, with Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) taking the final spot on the podium.

Kooij, though, was in a class of his own, winning by a clear margin to collect his seventh victory of the 2023 campaign.

After two hilly days, the Tour de Pologne returned to flat terrain for Tuesday’s 199km run from Strzelin to Opole. The day’s breakaway was caught with 25km to go, with the rest of the stage seeing a long wind-up to the sprint finish.

It was a messy affair, but Kooij was guided by lead-out man Bram Welten, allowing him to open the sprint and keep his rivals well at bay. Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), who beat Kooij to the line on the opening day, struggled to pick a clean route through and had to settle for seventh place.

Max Walscheid (Cofidis), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Jakub Mareczko (Alpecin-Deceuninck) were the riders between the Belgian and the podium places.

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey as overall leader. There was no change in timings at the top of the general classification, with all the contenders finishing in the peloton, but some riders swapped positions due to their stage placings.

João Almeida jumped above his UAE Team Emirates teammate Rafał Majka into second place, although both are still tied on time at 10 seconds from Mohorič. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) rose three places to fifth to lead the group at 20 seconds, behind Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) in fourth at 12 seconds.