Julius Van Den Berg close on a high note the Tour de Pologne 2021<\/p>\n
The Dutchman was one of the breakers and won his first pro victory in
\nKrak\u00f3w. Almeida secured his first stage race.<\/p>\n
Krakow 15th August _2021 – The last stage of the 2021 Tour de Pologne
\nstarted with an early breakaway including Julius Van Den Berg (EF
\nEducation-Nippo), Gianni Moscon (INEOS Grenadier), Pieter Vanspeybrouck
\n(Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty-Gobert Mat\u00e9riaux), Alexis Renard (Israel Start-Up
\nNation), and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team).<\/p>\n
The 5-man group reached a maximum gap of 2\u201900\u201d, while the GC leader
\nteam was controlling the race. With 36 km to go Vanspeybrouck was
\ndropped, but the four escapees continued their ride up to the finish
\nline. Lukas\u00a0 P\u00f6stlberger counter-attacked, trying to bridge the gap in
\nthe final four kilometers, but he didn\u2019t manage to neutralize the
\nbreakaway which entered the -500m mark with still a good lead for a
\nclose sprint.<\/p>\n
Julius Van Den Berg was the strongest today and conquered his first pro
\nvictory after a long day at the front in the last iconic stage of the
\nTour de Pologne. The podium was rounded up by his chasing companions
\nAlexis Renard (Israel Start-Up Nation), 2nd, and Matteo Jorgenson
\n(Movistar team), 3rd.<\/p>\n
\u201c_I am really happy with how it went today. We managed to keep a good
\ngap from the peloton during the whole day and eventually we made it,
\nthough I had no idea that the peloton was so close; I thought they would
\ncome back in the last lap, as it wasn\u2019t really technical,_\u201d
\ncommented a happy Julius Van Den Berg after claiming his first victory
\nas a Pro.<\/p>\n
The 78th edition of Tour de Pologne is won by Jo\u00e3o Almeida, who put in
\nhis palmares the first stage race victory. The Portuguese conquered the
\nyellow jersey in the second stage in Przemy\u015bl with a successful sprint
\nand wore it until the finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not an easy race, it was always hard. We’ve been lucky with
\nthe weather: always good weather. Our goal was to win some stages, but
\nin the end it turned into grabbing the yellow jersey and keeping it,\u201d
\nsaid the 78th Tour de Pologne GC leader. \u201cThe sprint jersey was a
\nbonus with the victories I had in the stages. It was a really good week
\nfor us, I had my first WT win and the overall. I\u2019m happy. We had a
\nreally strong team and actually we won the team classification. We\u2019re
\nreally happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Deceuninck Quick-Step brings home even the sprinter jersey by LOTOS
\n– also conquered by Almeida – and the best team classification.<\/p>\n
The prize of most active rider by Lotto goes to Taco Van Der Hoorn.
\nLukasz Owsian won the PZU classification dedicated to the best climber
\nof the race, and the special prize in memory of Bjorg Lambrecht was
\nassigned to Ben Tullet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very satisfied with this result, it\u2019s my first top ten CG in
\na WorldTour stage race, so of course I\u2019m very happy with this and also
\nI had a bonus as I did it before my twentieth birthday, so I’m really
\nproud with this result. You see, the level of the riders here\u2026 there
\nare some of the best riders in the world I was up against, so of course
\nI am really satisfied with this result. I\u2019m super happy with it. There
\nwas a really good team environment here, and I think that from that side
\nwe all really benefited from it. It\u2019s super special to win the Bjorn
\nLambrecht trophy, and it\u2019s an honor to take this trophy home with
\nme.\u201d<\/p>\n