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 6.
The queen stage? Most would say so, even if it is quite a short stage it is the one that presents the toughest climbs in the race and comes in the penultimate day which means fatigue will also play a role at this point of the week. The stage also does start off with a steep ascents where we may see some big attacks to form a breakaway.
The riders go on a little circuit that features two climbs during the middle part of the day and then late in the stage they tackle the first of the climbs again but then with a different summit finish. With 10 kilometers to go ends a climb of 2.5 kilometers at 8%, but the maximum is quite higher and the climb has serious ramps where big differences can be made.
But after this ascent and the small plateau that follows, there is still a final climb to Bukowina Tatranska to be tackled which is around 4.5 kilometers long at just over 5%. The hardest part of the climb is it’s first half which averages around 7%.
Stage 6: Bukowina Resort – Bukowina Tatrzanska, 147.1 kilometers
Prediction Tour de Pologne 2025 stage 6:
*** Jan Christen, Antonio Tiberi
** Paul Lapeira, Victor Langellotti, Brandon McNulty
* Finn Fisher-Black, Quinten Hermans, Rafal Majka, Alberto Bettiol, Pello Bilbao, Filippo Zana, Matthew Riccitello, Michal Kwiatkowski
Pick: Jan Christen
How: He looks like the strongest rider but one who has simply not timed his attacks properly. But this stage will be the hardest and he may not miss out on the victory this time around. I believe stage and GC are up for grabs to him.
Original: Rúben Silva