EF Education-EasyPost's Marijn van den Berg has improved upon his second-place finish on stage 4 with a brilliant victory on stage 5 at the Tour de Pologne, edging out some top-quality riders in the process.
Stage 5 of the Tour de Pologne sees a hilly stage with a well-known finale in Bielsk-Biala, however this year the route features quite a few more climbs where there is the potential for a lot of damage and GC raids.
Hoping this would be a day for the breakaway, five riders went up the road. Mick van Dijke (Jumbo-Visma), Markus Hoelgaard (Lidl - Trek), Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal - Quick Step), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) and Tobias Lund Andresen (Team DSM-Firmenich).
Despite Hoelgaard being the virtual leader on the road at one point, on the final categorised climb of the day, the time gap between peloton and break began to drop drastically.
With 20km to go, only Hoelgaard and De Gendt remained out front in the breakaway, holding a 30 second lead over the bunch.
By 12km to go though, their day out had ended. Both swallowed up by the peloton.
With all the big favourites still together heading into the finale, it was a varied finish full of different types of riders.
Emerging strongest and taking the victory was Marijn van den Berg ahead of Matej Mohoric and Joao Almeida in third.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Le Néerlandais Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-Easypost) l’emporte sur la cinquième étape du Tour de Pologne, pour sa 3e victoire en 2023. 2e, Matej Mohoric conforte son maillot de leader avant le contre la montre demain (16,6km). Une chute a eu lieu dans le final. #TdP2023
