Third day of racing in Poland, and third top 10 in a row for Romain Grégoire! As in the first stage, the young French puncher took seventh place on Wednesday, with another explosive finish in Duszniki-Zdrój. Like on Monday, Thibau Nys claimed victory, while the rider from Groupama-FDJ secured his fourth place overall. Two stages for the sprinters are now looming.
The GC contenders were once again expected this Wednesday in the Tour de Pologne. The third stage had another uphill finish in store for them, in Duszniki-Zdrój, but the day as a whole promised to be demanding. “It was a hard stage with 3,300 metres of elevation gain over 150 kilometres of racing,” explained Yvon Caër. The start of the stage still proved quite classic and calm, since only Jan Maas, Michal Paluta and Nicolas Debeaumarché formed the breakaway, which the bunch controlled easily. On the other hand, the situation turned out to be much less comfortable when seven men decided to open a counterattack at km 66. “There was a steep climb of two kilometres averaging 10% and some big teams got active, including Visma-Lease a Bike,” added Yvon. “Sam did well by following them, which allowed us to be one step ahead.” At the front, the British rider got the company of Pello Bilbao, Pepijn Reinderink, Mick van Dijke, Hugo Houle, Andrea Bagioli and Ben Turner. This group caught the breakaway while trying to stay away from the peloton. The gap remained around one minute and thirty seconds for a long time, including after the first climb of Karlów (7km at 5%). Sam Watson then broke away with Pello Bilbao for a bit, but the peloton got closer before the second time up Karlów, twenty-five kilometres from the finish.
“Romain held his own”, Yvon Caër
“The last climb was done very fast and there were just forty guys left at the top”, said Yvon. “Unfortunately, Sam was not able to hold on, and we missed him a little since Romain found himself alone”. The Frenchman, however, perfectly responded to Jonas Vingegaard’s acceleration near the summit, then the reduced peloton headed towards the uphill finish in Duszniki-Zdrój, the real key moment of this third stage. “At the bottom of the final climb, we missed one guy to prevent Romain from making an effort to position himself,” Yvon said. The rider from Groupama-FDJ therefore had to reposition himself on his own, including on the first slopes, then took advantage of a slight opening to move up to the front row 400 metres from the line. When the final sprint started a few moments later, however, Romain Grégoire lost a few metres and couldn’t enter the very tortuous last 200 metres enough in the lead. On the line, he had to settle for seventh place. “He was in a good position with 300 metres to go, but he says he lacked explosiveness,” explained Yvon. “The legs did the talking and we saw the same riders as in the first stage. He held his own, it’s still a good result, but I would have liked to see him with a better position at the bottom. That’s the only small regret we have.”
Like Monday, Thibau Nys took the win while the general classification barely changed. Romain Grégoire kept his fourth place and is still 33 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard. “It’s satisfying because we didn’t lose anything today,” concluded Yvon. “There will be another difficult stage on Saturday, perhaps harder on paper than today. Before that, two sprints are coming up. We’re going to try to get involved with Laurence, but there’s a very strong field of sprinters. We’re busy every day but it’s fine. We will organize for the sprint while preserving Romain’s achievements.”
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