Joao Almeida king of Bukovina

The young talented Portuguese extends his GC leadership after today’
masterpiece sprint.

Joao Almeida wins the queen stage by crossing the finish line in
Bukovina in the yellow jersey

The young talented Portuguese extends his GC leadership after today’ s
masterpiece sprint

Tarnòw, 12th August 2021 – The 23-year-old Portuguese rider emerged
from the small group that was sprinting at the end of the 160km race
beating a fierce Mathej Mohoric (Bahrain – Victorious), second, and
Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroen Team) showing excellent form, third.

The fourth stage of the 78th Tour de Pologne UCI WT was a tough one
starting in Tarnòw in front of the headquarters of Grupa Azoty, one of
the sponsors of the race, and finishing in Bukovina Resort in the heart
of the Tatra Mountains.

A four-man breakaway including Lawrence Warbasse (ACT), Attila Valter
(GFC), Edward Theuns (TFS) and Marco Canola (GAZ) set off immediately
and during the stage it reached a considerable gap of 3.30 minutes to
then be slowly absorbed by the peloton with less than 20km to go.

Once also the last two fugitives, Attila Valter and Marco Canola, had
been caught with just a few kilometres to go, the peloton got organised
for a pretty well-known finish of the seven-day Polish race. This is
when a number of attacks took place, including the one that saw Remi
Cavagna go off on his own, followed shortly by Paterski who was unable
to keep up.

At that point it was another Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider, Mikkel
Honoré, who tried to go clear and continued his run towards the finish
line until the peloton caught up with him and the sprint took shape.

“It was a hard stage with all the ups and downs. The team really helped
me a lot and I have to thank them for it.” said stage 4 winner, Joao
Almeida. “I tried to anticipate a little bit, then Mohoric attacked. I
followed him and thought he went a little bit early. I knew he probably
would have paid the effort and it was the moment when I gave everything,
so I did my sprint and passed him. The attack of Cavagna and Honorè in
the final was a good move as they forced the others to close the gap and
work more. That helped me a lot. Tomorrow it’ll be another hard stage,
especially in the final circuit. It won’t be easy but we’ll do our
best to be in a good position for the time trial. Then, it’ll be just
me and my legs.”

“It was a very tough final and I was hoping for much more, especially
if you look at the last 500m when I was in the perfect position to win
the stage but, at the end of the day, Almeida was the strongest guy
again. It was hard to follow him in the final sprint, and also Matej
Mohoric really had a kick in the end. I am not saying it’s not
happening, I am always in the game, I lost some seconds because of the
bonifications but I came here to win the overall and I’ll keep
fighting for it and it’ll happen hopefully.” stated Michal
Kwiatkowski.

2021 Tour de Pologne – Stage 4 Results

GC – Leader Jersey – (CARREFOUR)

Joao Almeida (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)

KOM – Mountain Jersey – (PZU)

Lukasz Owsian (Reprezentacja Polski)

POINTS – White Jersey (LOTOS)

Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadier)

BEST TEAM – (ENERGA)

Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux

Most Active rider (LOTTO)

Taco Van Der Hoorn ( Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux)

Best Polish rider

Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadier)