Matthew Brennan takes majestic sprint win after mountainous stage 5 of the Tour de Pologne

Matthew Brennan took a remarkable, long range sprint win tho take victory at stage five of the Tour de Pologne on Friday.

A group around 30 riders survived the mountains to lead into the finish in Zakopane, with the British rider making his move with over 300m of the day to go. He was chased by another Brit, Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) almost catching his compatriot, but finishing second. Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) was third.

After his stage two win, Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) continues to lead the race overall, finishing with the group in 24th place

Once the day’s breakaway was finally brought back on the day’s final, unclassified climb, a number of attacks punctuated the last 10km. Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana) and Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) escaped late on, and for a while it seemed they would stay away, however, Ineos Grenadiers did much of the work to bring them back before Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe made the final junction, leading a group of around 30 riders into the closing kilometre.

Brennan could be seen moving up the outside of the bunch, but without a team mate the 20-year-old chose to go long, holding on to take the ninth win of this, his first professional season. 

Lapeira lead the overall by eight seconds from Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers) with a mother lumpy day coming up on Saturday before the final day time trial. 

A day of climbing at the 2025 Tour de Pologne was also the longest of the week. Starting in Katowice and finishing in Zakopane after 206.1km, climbing 2,763 metres over two first category climbs. Those, however, were in the middle of the stage and would have little effect, but towards the end a long, draggy climb was to define the day, with its ramps in excess of 10% in the final two kilometres

With the neutralised section done and the flag dropped, the race for the day’s break was on instantly, with four men emerging at the front after a brief battle. Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty, Martin Svrček (Soudal-Quickstep and Patrick Gamper (Jayco-AlUla) quickly built a lead befitting the race’s longest day, reaching and settling at more than six minutes with 150km to go.

On the run into the next first category climb of Krowiarki Pass Artz was victim of a minor crash requiring a bike change, though by now, the gap was down to less than five minutes, EF Education-EasyPost joining Visma | Lease Bike at the the front of the bunch.

More teams came to help out in the peloton and, with 50km to go, the deficit was well under three minutes and the breakaway’s days appeared numbered. Indeed, with 20km to go Plowright and Artz were alone at the front, though under one minute ahead, and though Artz briefly ploughed on alone he was caught 11km from the finish.

For a while it had seemed a full peloton might crest the climb, in the end the pace was so high only a small group survived, though that did include Lapeira. On the final, steepest slopes before the 10km descent to the line, the attacks started, UAE Team Emirates-XRG the first to move, but still a group of around 30 took on the descent.