Matej Mohoric wins the Tour de Pologne
Matej Mohoric wins the Tour de Pologne
In a thrilling finish, Tim Merlier won the seventh and final stage of the Tour de Pologne UCI WorldTour, crossing the finish line in Krakow after 3h 28’44” ahead of Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) in second place and Fernando Gaviria (Team Movistar) in third.
The main focus, however, was on the battle for the overall classification. The last episode in the battle between Mohoric and Almeida took place at the intermediate sprint in Wilamowice, 67.5 km from the finish. Bahrain Victorious and UAE Team Emirates battled to the last meter for the points that would decide the winner of the 80th edition of the Tour de Pologne UCI WorldTour. It was a complete sprint that saw Pasqulon lead Mohoric past his closest rival, Joao Almeida, to take the win by a single second, the closest finish ever in the 7-stage race in Poland. The podium was completed by MIchal Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos), who was involved in a crash fortunately without consequences about 12 km from the finish.
“I feel proud because today we fought to the finish and now we go to celebrate. Today it was hard to focus on the race because of what happened last night in Slovenia, with the floods and the people who lost their lives, their homes, and their possessions. My heart is with them,” Mohoric stressed. “As soon as I come back I will try to help them financially with the prize money from this race. Sometimes we have to put sports in perspective. On a sporting level I am really happy and proud of this success. It was a great team effort and one of the best team performances. I am happy to have been a part of it.”
As for the intermediate sprint, I can say that we knew that the UAE was going to bet on it and we had to do it. Last night we studied the sprint in great detail. We knew exactly what we had to do; I wanted my own advantage. Pasqualon and everyone else did an incredible job, I just had to finish. It is different when you win because of the team and when you win because you are strong. I would love to come back to the Tour de Pologne. I’ve already been here in 2019, when I won a stage, and in 2021, when I finished second overall. I think the course is really well balanced, with punchy climbs that really suit me. I want to thank everyone for this incredible week of bike racing,” concluded the Slovenian cyclist.
