Matej Mohoric wins explosive finale of Tour de Pologne stage 2 and takes on race lead

Matej Mohoric left the Tour de France in flying form and has brought it to eastern Europe, he has won the hilltop finale of the second day of racing at the Tour de Pologne.

Stage 2 started off with a breakaway of three riders who entertained throughout a lot of the day, featuring Jacopo Mosca (Lidl - Trek), Sam Brand (Team Novo Nordisk) and Lorenzo Milesi (Team DSM-Firmenich). The trio enjoyed a gap of over 10 minutes, however the peloton calmly chased down the move.

UAE Team Emirates was the team that did the most work throughout the day to make sure the GC riders would be in the fight. Mosca was the final survivor from the breakaway, eventually being reeled in with 24 kilometers to go.

In the penultimate ascent of the day Team Jayco AlUla took to the front of the peloton and put on a strong pace that would thin down the group to around 40 riders, setting up Eddie Dunbar and Matteo Sobrero. In the descent and then the run-up to the climb other teams joined the front of the peloton, INEOS Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates having the numbers to position their leaders.

All three teams entered the final climb in the front, the shallow gradients saw a furious pace with several teams headlining the group with their domestiques. The steep section of the climb began in the final 3.5 kilometers, there Rafal Majka attacked hard getting a meaningful gap over the otherwise conservative GC group.

Lennert van Eetvelt counter-attacked and bridged across to the front, the duo had 10 seconds at the end of the steep section of the climb with no defined organization in the chasing group. The duo looked set to go for the win, still carrying a sizeable gap into the final 500 meters, but a few riders had saved their bullets for the final ramp.

Astana Qazaqstan Team closed the gap slightly and Matej Mohoric jumped into the wheel of the duo with 300 meters to go, followed by a few riders that could handle the pace. However shortly after as he launched his sprint only João Almeida could follow, but was unable to outsprint the Slovenian.

Mohoric won the stage and took on the race lead with João Almeida finishing alongside him, whilst Michal Kwiatkowski rode to third on the day.