PREVIEW | Tour de Pologne 2025 stage 3 - Roller-coaster stage ideal for GC raids in the Polish hills

From the 4th to 10th of August the World Tour calendar continues with it's first post-Tour de France stage-race: the Tour de Pologne. This week-long race in Poland is always packed with opportunities for the sprinters, classics riders and time-trialists. We preview stage 3.

The third day of racing starts and finishes in the town of Walbrzych and for many it's a nightmarish day. Out of the 158 kilometers there is a barely a flat kilometer throughout the entire route and the total amount of climbing is of 3500 meters.

But these spread across dozens of climbs that the riders will face. There is no one moment of the stage where the race may explode, as there is climbing from start to finish. There are three steep ascents that could be more important due to their proximity to the finish and high gradient.

1.9Km at 9.7% (44.5Km to go); 3Km at 7.6% (30.5Km to go) and 1.2Km at 8.8% (15Km to go) certainly mark important points on the day before a slight downhill finish. Paul Lapeira enters the stage in the lead but with so much climbing from start to finish it will be a difficult day to control and several teams may try to attack from far and try to make the difference. UAE have three men in the GC fight and are the team most certain to try and explode the race from far, but Lapeira can certainly find a few allies in the more exposed GC teams and a few riders like Matthew Brennan for example who may have the legs and position to sprint for the win in the end of the day.

*** Jan Christen, Mathias Vacek
** Finn Fisher-Black, Quinten Hermans, Brandon McNulty
* Paul Lapeira, Rafal Majka, Victor Langellotti, Rudy Molard, Alberto Bettiol, Pello Bilbao, Matteo Sobrero, Matthew Brennan, Dorian Godon, Maxim van Gils, Diego Ulissi

Pick: Quinten Hermans

How: Sprint out of a small GC group. Many scenarios can decide this stage...