DISCUSSION Tour de Pologne stage 7 | Will UAE break Team Columbia - HTC's record of 85 pro wins in a season?

The final stage of the Tour de Pologne was an individual time trial featuring 12.5km that proved to be decisive to shape the final overall classification. Brandon Mcnulty was the man to beat and main favourite to get the GC win, starting the day just 7 seconds behind the race leader, Victor Langelotti.

Ben Turner was the provisional leader for a while, until Movistar youngster Lorenzo Milesi absolutely smashed the clock and set a best time that seemed unbeatable, arguably the best time trial of his career.

Neither TT specialists such as Stefan Küng nor the GC riders were able to improve his time, except for Brandon Mcnulty. The American put up an outstanding performance and grabbed both the stage win and the overall GC, beating Milesi by 12 seconds and Sobrero by 15 seconds.

Antonio Tiberi and Matteo Sobrero completed the podium of the overall GC, with Victor Langelotti falling from first to fifth after the time trial.

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

Brandon McNulty did what was expected of him and took the final overall classification of the Tour of Poland 2025. Maybe it wasn't so expected that he would do it this way, dominating so much and even winning the final time trial, but he has done it this way, so congratulations to him.

Lorenzo Milesi has left Movistar Team in a very good position and has completed a Tour of Poland 2025 with high marks / outstanding. As for the Spaniards, a pity that Pello Bilbao could not maintain his position in the top 5 of the race, but he still managed to finish in the Top 10 being Antonio Tiberi's gregario, who was second overall.

I think everyone expected Brandon Mcnulty to win today, and he absolutely delivered. After the intermediate point it was clear that nobody was even close to match his power, and he added 2 more victories for UAE. They already have 72 this season, and there are still around 2 months left. The record Team Columbia – HTC set in 2009 (85 wins) looks in serious danger right now…

Lorenzo Milesi was the biggest surprise today that is for sure. We already knew he was a big talent in time trials after he won the under 23 world championship ITT in 2023, but he had never managed to deliver a big result at the highest level.

Today he sat in the hot seat for a very long time and I even started to believe that he could eventually be the winner, after the main favorites were unable to beat his time. A win would have been an immense relief for Movistar team. Not because the Spanish squad is fearing relegation, but because their season has been pretty underwhelming.

This year, they only have 10 wins to their credit. If we exclude the victories in National championships, the count goes down to just 5, making them one of the teams with the least amount of wins this season. After Enric Mas’ disappointing Tour de France, coupled with his recent injury, which will leave him out of the Vuelta a España, Movistar team needs a new source of hope.

Lorenzo Milesi has become one of Movistar's new sensations. The Italian is just 23 years old, and he is already one of the team’s most promising talents of his generation. The Spanish team needs a new breath of fresh air, and together with Iván Romeo, the two riders can be the cornerstones of the new project.

Another rider who pleasantly surprised me was Matthew Brennan. The British sensation is known for his powerful sprint, even in uphill sections. But today he completed a very decent time-trial. He finished 11th, although he is not supposed to be an specialist. He is very young, so he definitely has a lot of room for improvement, but if he already delivers such a high level in TTs, I can’t imagine what the ceiling of this rider could be.

He finished with 1 victory, and I was honestly expecting a little bit more from him. That alone tells you how good he is. Not many riders his age have such high expectations placed on them.