Tour of Poland 2026 – Stage 4 [LAST 10 KM]

August 6, 2026

83rd Tour de Pologne 2026 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 4 – Żagań – Karpacz : 161,9 km

Tour of Poland is a UCI WorldTour stage race run across varied terrain that can include flat sprint stages, rolling roads, and selective mountain finishes. The route often moves through open countryside and urban circuits, with exposed stretches where wind can split the field and tighter finales that demand careful positioning. Riders face a mix of physical and tactical challenges, from long transfers of effort on fast road sections to sharper climbs that force repeated accelerations and test recovery. The race dynamics shift by stage, with sprinters’ teams controlling flatter days, breakaway riders seeking time on rolling terrain, and general classification contenders waiting for the harder uphill finishes or time trials. Typical stages may feature 3–5 categorized climbs, technical corners, and decisive closing kilometers that reward precision as much as power. Finishes can come down to bunch sprints, reduced groups, or late attacks, depending on how selective each day becomes.

Due to a crash with around 42 km to go, the race was shortened with 15km.

A late solo attack on a crash-marred trek through the rain-soaked hills of south-west Poland earned Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) the victory and the overall lead on a shortened stage 4 of the Tour de Pologne.

Dropped by Lemmen on the large Cat.1 ascent of Karpacz, runner-up Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) then clawed his way back on a final 1.5-kilometre ramp with enough power almost to steal the show from the Dutch climber, but the Visma-Lease a Bike rider just hung on for his first-ever pro win victory by a couple of bike lengths. Third was Axel Laurance (Netcompany-Ineos), around 14 seconds back at the head of a splintering peloton.

The stage was marred by a major crash some 40 kilometres from the line, which saw racing suspended for nearly 40 minutes as ambulances attended the injured amongst the 30-40 fallen. One of their number was leading race favourite João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), able to continue but with a large cut in his left leg causing him to sit up before the finale.

After such a major accident, fears of more crashes on waterlogged descents saw one of the two final climbs, the Cat.1 Borowice, removed from the course. There was still enough climbing, though, for a four-rider break including the day’s winner, Lemmen, to go clear.

“It’s an amazing feeling, I still can’t believe it. I’ve been saying for a long time that I was fed up with not winning, and today it finally happened. After the crash, I had huge doubts about whether to even continue riding. Everything hurt, but once I got back on the bike, the adrenaline kicked in. I also wanted to help Louis Barré,” Lemmen said in a statement after the finish.

“After that crash, the peloton rode a bit more cautiously, which opened up space for me to attack. I took a risk – I figured it was easier to give it my all when nobody was sitting on my wheel. After so many attempts, I could finally cross the finish line with my hands up and put on the leader’s jersey.”

Part of the day-long 206-kilometre move on stage 1 that failed to work out, after a much more profitable and shorter attack on stage 4 despite being caught up in the crash, the Visma-Lease a Bike racer now leads overall by six seconds on Scaroni. Marco Brenner (Tudor) is third at 26 seconds in what remains a tight GC battle with three difficult days yet to come.

A crash that changed the entire stage
The first of three full mountain stages of the 2026 Tour de Pologne began with a break containing, almost inevitably, Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla), the Belgian rider on the early moves almost every day, with the equally active Polish National team taking their usual interest, too. In this case, the two riders from the local squad were Tobiasz Pawlak and Patryck Stosz, whilst Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) provided something of an exotic note as the Italian’ talents are in sprinting – he already placed third on one stage this week – rather than tackling the kind of mountains the riders would face later on.

In any case, after the quartet’s lead had reached 2:30, the peloton began matching their speed, and the status quo endured for many a long kilometre across the flatlands of southern Poland.

However, after the roads abruptly had grown hillier on the run-in and rain began to fall, too, a massive crash radically altered the narrative of the stage.

More than 30 riders went down on a fast, sweeping descent about 40 kilometres out, forcing a 35-40 minute neutralisation as ambulances attended the injured. Although racing finally resumed, fears over safety saw the Cat.1 Borowice climb, one of the two final ascents removed from the program and the stage length reduced, too.

Meantime, lead favourite João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was amongst those affected by the crash, and a large cut in his left leg saw him drop out of the peloton long before the finish. A former winner of the Tour de Pologne and the most successful week-long stage rader of 2025, the Portuguese rider’s teammates Juan Sebastian Molano and Benoît Cosnefroy were both reported as DNFs, too, and long after the stage finish, the full effect of the mass pile-up had yet to be established.

After all the tension and uncertainty sparked by that huge crash, a bike race broke out once again as the route headed onto the Karpacz (7km at 6.1%), now the only Cat.1 climb of the day following the elimination of the Borowice – and crucial as a result. Initially at its foot, Netcompany-Ineos drove hard on the front, causing the gap to the four leaders to plummet to just one minute and with every metre the race climbed, the faster the lead continued to fall.

Race leader and sprint specialist Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was one of those immediately to fall back on the lower slopes, thanks to this high pace, while the battle for the stage win, boosted by the added attraction of a guaranteed spell in top spot overall for whoever won, gained even more intensity.

The impetus of Bahrain Victorious as they took over from Netcompany-Ineos was more than enough to suck in the last two breakaways, Stosz and De Bondt, 8km from the line, but not before Stosz had snapped up a special prime half-way up the climb.

Then a major dig by Tijmen Graat (Visma-Lease a Bike) was quickly reinforced by teammate Lemmen, and after Graat had laid the foundations for his move, Lemmen pushed on with Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) and Marco Brenner (Tudor) in tow. Yet with the gradient easing out before the summit and the peloton still containing some 30-40 riders just 10 seconds behind, it was far from clear if the trio of riders could stay away.

Some 4.5km from the finish, Lemmen opted to make another concerted drive, shedding his two breakaway companions and powering over the top with maximum points to his name, as well as holding several seconds advantage.

The sweeping, super-fast corners made his rapid descent look risky, particularly after such a big crash early on, but with just 1500 metres left, Lemmen took on the last uphill both upright and with his narrow lead intact.

There was one last twist of the plot to come, though, given Lemmen was suffering more and more as he climbed towards the finishing line. And that in turn opened the way for Scaroni to make a determined drive to try to get back on terms with the breakaway Dutchman at the very last minute.

It might have worked, too, had not Lemmen looked back, seen the Italian was closing in, and somehow pulled out the last ounces of energy from who-knows-where to take a vital first victory in his career.

Stage 5 to Kocierz Resort, with a late Cat.1 ascent and then a steep uphill finale, could well cause yet more GC sparks to fly. However, Saturday’s major mountain stage through the Carpathians and the final time trial on Sunday will likely prove the real deciders overall.

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