Tour of Poland stage 1: Phil Bauhaus sprints to stage win

German sprinter Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) won Monday’s opening stage of the Tour of Poland, bolting past late attacker Álvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) in the final meters to score his first WorldTour victory of the season. It’s the sixth pro victory of the season for Bauhaus.

Bauhaus’s sprint and bike-throw at the line upended the plan of Deceuninck-Quick-Step, which unleashed Hodeg inside 500 meters to go on an uphill section of cobblestones. Hodeg appeared to have the victory in sight after bolting clear, but behind, Bauhaus accelerated from the group and caught Hodeg just a few meters from the line. The margin of victory was less than the length of a bicycle.

“I was on Gaviria’s wheel and unfortunately for me, he didn’t have the best legs and stopped with 300 meters to go and let a gap,” “Basically, I had to chase and I was a bit unsure if I had enough energy and also for the guys behind me, but I saved some power for the last 150 meters to do another kick. I was running out of meters but I could see I was much faster, and I’m super happy I could catch him on the line.”

The sprint came after a 216km race from Lublin to Chelm that featured early hills before a mostly flat run-in to Chelm, where two laps of a circuit that included a 1km section of uphill cobbles greeted the peloton. The day’s early breakaway saw three riders go clear: Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana-Premiere Tech), Michal Paluta (Global 6 Cycling), and American rider Sean Bennett (Qhubeka NextHash). The three built a six-minute lead on the peloton, while behind, Deceuninck-Quick-Step, UAE-Team Emirates, and Bahrain-Victorious, among other teams, took turns controlling the pace.

After a reshuffling that saw the original breakaway absorbed, and a new of three made its way out front: Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma), Tom Scully (EF Education-Nippo), and Antoine Dechesne (Groupama-FDJ). But the peloton absorbed that group inside 15km to go, setting up a battle for the finish.

Bauhaus said Bahrain-Victorious came into the stage with ample confidence for the sprint. The team is in Poland with a squad targeting sprints, with power riders Marcel Sieberg, Heinrich Haussler, Matej Mohoric, and Eros Capecchi, among others.

“It was a super long day for us. We were pretty confident from the beginning. Our team had good preparation and a good training camp,” Bauhaus said. “I think we as a team did a pretty good job on the final circuit and I had also good super good legs in the last 500 meters and I’m super happy I could take the win.”

The seven-day race now features four hilly stages before an individual time trial on stage 6 that is likely to establish the final general classification.