The Dutchman won his first pro victory in Kraków. Almeida secured his first stage race.
Julius Van Den Berg close on a high note the Tour de Pologne 2021
The Dutchman was one of the breakers and won his first pro victory in
Kraków. Almeida secured his first stage race.
Krakow 15th August _2021 – The last stage of the 2021 Tour de Pologne
started with an early breakaway including Julius Van Den Berg (EF
Education-Nippo), Gianni Moscon (INEOS Grenadier), Pieter Vanspeybrouck
(Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Alexis Renard (Israel Start-Up
Nation), and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team).
The 5-man group reached a maximum gap of 2’00”, while the GC leader
team was controlling the race. With 36 km to go Vanspeybrouck was
dropped, but the four escapees continued their ride up to the finish
line. Lukas Pöstlberger counter-attacked, trying to bridge the gap in
the final four kilometers, but he didn’t manage to neutralize the
breakaway which entered the -500m mark with still a good lead for a
close sprint.
Julius Van Den Berg was the strongest today and conquered his first pro
victory after a long day at the front in the last iconic stage of the
Tour de Pologne. The podium was rounded up by his chasing companions
Alexis Renard (Israel Start-Up Nation), 2nd, and Matteo Jorgenson
(Movistar team), 3rd.
“_I am really happy with how it went today. We managed to keep a good
gap from the peloton during the whole day and eventually we made it,
though I had no idea that the peloton was so close; I thought they would
come back in the last lap, as it wasn’t really technical,_”
commented a happy Julius Van Den Berg after claiming his first victory
as a Pro.
The 78th edition of Tour de Pologne is won by João Almeida, who put in
his palmares the first stage race victory. The Portuguese conquered the
yellow jersey in the second stage in Przemyśl with a successful sprint
and wore it until the finish.
“It was not an easy race, it was always hard. We’ve been lucky with
the weather: always good weather. Our goal was to win some stages, but
in the end it turned into grabbing the yellow jersey and keeping it,”
said the 78th Tour de Pologne GC leader. “The sprint jersey was a
bonus with the victories I had in the stages. It was a really good week
for us, I had my first WT win and the overall. I’m happy. We had a
really strong team and actually we won the team classification. We’re
really happy.”
The Deceuninck Quick-Step brings home even the sprinter jersey by LOTOS
– also conquered by Almeida – and the best team classification.
The prize of most active rider by Lotto goes to Taco Van Der Hoorn.
Lukasz Owsian won the PZU classification dedicated to the best climber
of the race, and the special prize in memory of Bjorg Lambrecht was
assigned to Ben Tullet.
“I’m very satisfied with this result, it’s my first top ten CG in
a WorldTour stage race, so of course I’m very happy with this and also
I had a bonus as I did it before my twentieth birthday, so I’m really
proud with this result. You see, the level of the riders here… there
are some of the best riders in the world I was up against, so of course
I am really satisfied with this result. I’m super happy with it. There
was a really good team environment here, and I think that from that side
we all really benefited from it. It’s super special to win the Bjorn
Lambrecht trophy, and it’s an honor to take this trophy home with
me.”
GC – CARREFOUR
Joao Almeida
Deceuninck – Quick-Step
KOM – PZU
Lukasz Owsian
Reprezentacja Polski
POINTS – LOTOS
Joao Almeida
Deceuninck – Quick-Step
Most Active – LOTTO
Taco Van Der Hoorn
Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux