Dominant Paul Magnier takes victory ahead of Ben Turner on stage 4 of 2025 Tour de Pologne

Soudal - Quick-Step's Paul Magnier has taken the win from a reduced bunch uphill sprint on stage 4 of the 2025 Tour de Pologne.

An all-Polish trio attacked early to form the breakaway of the day. Alongside Paweł Bernas and Michał Pomorski, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe's Filip Maciejuk was the most well-known rider of the three. Ahead of the Cat 1 Przełęcz Salmopol climb at around 70km to go, Pomorski was dropped, but the remaining breakaway duo were then joined by the counter-attacking King of the Mountains leader Timo Kielich, strengthening their ranks considerably. 

Having fought so hard to get across, it was little surprise that Kielich took maximum points at the top of the climb. Their lead over the peloton was only around 53 seconds though, and still more than 65km to go. By 50km to go, Bernas too had been dropped, leaving just Maciejuk and Kielich up the road.

After beating Maciejuk at the two intermediate sprints, Kielich himself then sat up with just over 40km to go, leaving the Polish BORA rider all alone at the head of the race. As Maciejuk crossed the finish line for the first time at around 26km to go, he still had 50 seconds on the peloton, making the catch by no means a formality.

By 16km to go, Maciejuk had company again as Lorenzo Milesi bridged the gap to the front. With 10km to go, they still held a narrow, 15 second lead over the peloton too. As they started the final lap of the finishing circuit at 6km to go, it was still 12 seconds and the drama was beginning to ramp up.

With just 2.3km to go though, Maciejuk and Milesi were finally caught by the peloton. Then, it was down to the peloton to fight for the stage win and in that battle, it was Paul Magnier who went early and there was no stopping the Frenchman, who held off Ben Turner for a dominant win.