PREVIEW | Tour de Pologne 2025 stage 5 - Can INEOS Grenadiers take another win on hilly stage?

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 5.

The longest day of the race will come on stage 5, starting in Katowice and finishing in Zakopane, two locations used to receiving the race. This is a day for the puncheurs but it can also end in a reduced bunch sprint or breakaway.

The stage features some climbing but the most difficult ascents of the day come far from the finish and shouldn't be attacked. In the finale of the 207-kilometer stage we'll have a 4-kilometer long ascent at 5.4% that ends with 13 kilometers to go. Then a downhill and a slight uphill drag to the line in Zakopane where even those who survive the climbing beforehand, will need good legs to reach the final meters with the ability to sprint. 

Whilst not a crazy hard stage there is the terrain to launch some attacks and a few riders may want to test Paul Lapeira after his crash yesterday. The Frenchman is still in the lead but if he hasn't recovered properly it can become very difficult for him. But in case of a sprint we should have the GC riders present, as well as likely Ben Turner who is on stupendous form and perhaps Matthew Brennan who would become very dangerous.

*** Ben Turner, Jan Christen
** Matthew Brennan, Andrea Bagioli, Pello Bilbao
* Paul Magnier, Thibaud Gruel, Finn Fisher-Black, Tim Torn Teutenberg, Quinten Hermans, Paul Lapeira, Diego Ulissi, Victor Langellotti, Marco Frigo

Pick: Ben Turner

How: Reduced peloton sprint with another brilliant INEOS leadout.