Pascal Ackermann wins fourth stage of Tour de Pologne with strong uphill sprint

The fourth stage of the Tour de Pologne promised spectacle and it delivered, despite having a very conservative race over the climbs, the finale had several attacks, but UAE Team Emirates' Pascal Ackermann crossed the line first to take an important win.

The start to the day was hard with several groups trying to go up the road, forcing a high pace. However a five rider group ended up consolidating, with Nans Peters (AG2R Citröen Team), Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates), Mads Wurtz Schmid (Israel - Premier Tech), Anders Skaarseth (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) and Kamil Malecky (Lotto Soudal).

The group never enjoyed a large gap throughout the day as the peloton kept a close eye. The break, reduced to Oliveira, Schmid and Skaarseth at the summit of the final climb of the day, was in sight of the peloton, however they expanded it briefly as a slow down in the peloton also saw Rémi Cavagna and Mike Teunissen go up the road.

The duo was caught, and later with three kilometers to go the surviving breakaway trio was also caught by a fast moving peloton. As soon as it happened Zdenek Stybar attacked off the front in the hilly entrance to the city, with a crash later disrupting some of the case, including Sergio Higuita who went down.

Stybar entered the final uphill ramps in front and seemed to be on his way to win, however UAE's leadout came strong from behind as Juan Sebastián Molano delivered Pascal Ackermann to the front in the perfect position, and the German had the legs to take a strong win. Jordi Meeus and Jonathan Milan completed the podium.