Jonathan Milan thunders to powerful victory in frantic Tour de Pologne opener

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) thundered to victory on stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne, beating Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) in a chaotic bunch sprint in Koszalin.

The Italian champion was bumped from the wheel of lead-out man Simone Consonni in the finale, but he managed to battle his way to the front and then unleash a ferocious sprint.

Magnier, who had Milan’s number at the Giro d’Italia in May, was his closest challenger, but the Frenchman wasn’t able to get on terms once his rivals hit the front.

In a furious bunch sprint, Noah Hobbs (EF Education-EasyPost) took third ahead of Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

EF had led into the final corner, and Hobbs smartly allowed a gap for his lead-out man Marijn van den Berg to try to steal a march before the sprint opened in earnest. The Dutchman was hunted down in the finishing straight, however, where Consonni lead out the sprint even though he knew Milan was no longer on his wheel.

But his effort still helped, and Milan found his way to the front to power to the first yellow jersey of the race.

The opening stage of the Tour de Pologne was a mammoth one, covering 234km as the route took the peloton from the Baltic Sea port of Gdynia to Koszalin. The distance didn’t deter an early cohort of attackers, with Patrick Gamper (Jayco-AlUla), Bart Lemmen (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility), Kamil Małecki (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Radosław Frątczak (Poland) forging clear in the opening kilometres.

That quintet struck up a decent working alliance, building a maximum lead of just under three minutes while Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quick-Step kept the pace ticking over at the head of the peloton.

The holding pattern held for much of the afternoon, with the peloton drawing inexorably closer in the final hour of racing, and they swept up the escapees with a little under 15km to go as they approached the day’s lone ascent, the category 3 ascent of Góra Chełmska.

Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla) attacked with intent over the top of the climb with a shade over 8km to go, and he pressed on over the other side, but he would be caught with 5km to go, by which point Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Decathlon CMA CGM had hit the front of the peloton.