The opening day of racing at the Tour de Pologne saw the peloton take on a 156 kilometre route from Wrocław to Karpacz and an uphill finish. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL kept their powder dry within the peloton, keeping GC finishers Romain Bardet and Oscar Onley safe and well protected as the kilometres ticked by. Coming into the finale, the team came forward en masse and looked to position Bardet and Onley for the final three kilometres of climbing. Unfortunately, there was a crash in the bunch which saw Onley and Bardet both involved. The former of whom, battled hard to try and return to the front of the race but because the pace was really high at that moment, he instead had to limit his losses, finishing just inside a minute from the stage winner.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “I think the guys did a really good job today, they really looked after Romain and Oscar. Unfortunately, running into the last climb there was a crash which involved Romain and Oscar. Romain didn’t actually touch the deck but Oscar did, and he did extremely, extremely well to limit his losses to less than a minute as it was a high speed situation at that moment. Oscar is gutted and disappointed, but we still have chances this week and will keep fighting and make sure to go for it.”