DISCUSSION Tour de Pologne Stage 3 | Were the race organizers right to neutralize the stage? Should the Tour de Pologne be downgraded from the World Tour?

Stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne turned out to be chaotic and unpredictable, but for all the wrong reasons. What was expected to be a stage suited for the GC contenders, with an explosive finish for puncheurs, ended up descending into complete confusion. A brutal crash with 25 km to go forced the race to be neutralized, leaving the riders very disoriented and unsure about what was happening. Paul Lapeira, Mathias Vacek, Jack Haig, and Rafal Majka all hit the deck during one of the descents.

Vacek was the worst affected by the crash. The Czech rider was forced to abandon the race just as he was sitting second in the overall classification and was considered one of the main contenders for the Tour de Pologne victory. The race was neutralized, in yet another example of the safety and logistical problems that plague this race.

Finally, it was Ben Turner who took the victory in an uncontested sprint. Paul Lapeira managed to finish the stage and is still the leader of the race, but we’ll see tomorrow what his physical condition is like.

In Burgos, we saw a flat stage that ended in a bunch sprint. Matteo Moschetti narrowly beat Malucelli in a photo finish sprint.

Once both stages finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

I dont really carry an opinion on it as the decision is ultimately always down to the organizers, they know best. It is really bizarre that only about 20 minutes after the crash was any sort of footage released, although it was a bike in the back of the peloton and we didn't get to see it.

It is a shame for the race and anyone involved but I would believe that the large amount of injured riders led to there not being enough ambulances following the peloton. Mathias Vacek abandoned the race which has huge implications on the GC and of course Paul Lapeira being involved means that his GC run may be over even though he maintained the race lead.

Controversial is Ben Turner's win, not personal obviously, but over the fact that he had been dropped by the peloton and then reconnected with it whilst the race was neutralized. There was not really a control of who was in the peloton or not before and so riders that were dropped them resumed racing out front which cannot happen if the stage is still at play.

An injustice committed by the organisation of the Tour of Poland, I don't question the decision to neutralise the race due to a lack of ambulances, but the trio of fugitives didn't have a 40-second lead, they had more than a minute and why not neutralise right after the climb?

The fact is that resuming a race uphill is a daunting task, a lively stage finish was lost and, worst of all, at the moment of neutralisation the peloton was much smaller, several cyclists benefited from this situation to get back into the group.

In the end, Ulissi, Milesi and O'Brien put up a great fight and were caught 1,300 metres from the finish line, thanks to an attack by Jan Christen (which I didn't quite understand because the overall times had been neutralised), because I'm convinced that, at pace, the victory lay with the front trio. In any case, congratulations to Ben Turner, who ended up winning the stage with a masterstroke from old man Kwiatkowski. The Tour of Poland is still very close, but once again the organisation has put its foot in it.

After the crash, it was difficult to know exactly what was happening. After the first replay, we could barely make out which riders were the ones involved in the crash. After that, the race continued, but we were not getting any updates on the situation, and it was impossible to figure out what was going on. The broadcast was very bad, as we had to wait until the end of the stage to start getting more information.

But the broadcast was probably the least of the problems. The decision to neutralise the stage was the correct one, but this should never have happened in a UCI race. I had never seen a race stopped because of a crash that affected four riders. Apparently, the issue was the lack of ambulances (there can be no race if there are not enough ambulances). Now the question is: why was there no ambulance available? Imagine if every race had to be neutralised every time there was a crash.

But the problems don’t end there. After more than 15 minutes, the race was resumed, but guess what: the break didn’t receive the correct time they had over the peloton before the race was stopped.

Three riders (Pepijn Reinderink, Diego Ulissi, and Lorenzo Milesi) were riding in front, holding a lead of more than 40 seconds over the peloton, but the race restarted and they were not granted that 40-second advantage, but less.

On top of that, we could see a very reduced peloton (around 30 riders) right after the crash. But when the stage resumed, the peloton was almost completely intact! Riders like Matthew Brennan, who had been dropped and were no longer in contention, managed to rejoin the group and fight for a stage they had essentially lost. All in all, it was a chaotic and poorly managed stage that should lead to serious reflection. In my opinion, the Tour de Pologne should no longer hold WorldTour status.

As for the final sprint, it was an uncontested win by Ben Turner. I was surprised not to see Matthew Brennan in a position to win. Perhaps he felt guilty and thought the best decision was not to fight for the victory.