On the eve of the closing time trial of the Tour de Pologne, the GC contenders field further decreased on Saturday. On the very demanding course around Bukowina, sixteen riders were ultimately able to compete for victory until the end, including Rudy Molard. The Groupama-FDJ’s rider ultimately took fourteenth place on the day, eight seconds behind winner Victor Langellotti, and now holds the same position in the overall.
Following the neutralization of Tour de Pologne’s Stage 3, which featured the biggest elevation gain of the week, the sixth stage became the most important one for the peloton’s punchers/climbers on Saturday. Around Bukowina Tatrzańska, seven climbs featured on the day’s menu, but above all, the repeated slopes at 10-12% were supposed to really produce gaps, especially on the two hills located in the last fifteen kilometers. Well before that, Enzo Paleni tried to join the early breakaway, and succeeded, but only for about thirty kilometres. “He felt the right move, anticipated well, but he quickly realized he wasn’t feeling well,” explained Jussi Veikkanen. “He had a stomach ache, was feeling aches and pains, and got distanced. We know that a virus is spreading in the peloton. There have been a lot of sick people for the past two days. It didn’t concern us yesterday, but today, Rémi was the main one affected, as he had to abandon. As for Enzo, we’ll have to see how things develop between now and tomorrow.” A group of nine fugitives then led the way, but without a significant margin, until the second sequence of climbs, some sixty kilometres from the finish line.
“Rudy couldn’t recover,” Jussi Veikkanen
The first selection occurred in the peloton. Rudy Molard followed the first group of favorites, before being joined by Thibaud Gruel and Stefan Küng in a bunch of around fifty riders. This group headed for the final two climbs, particularly up Ściana Bukovina (2.5 km at an 8% gradient, including 600 metres at nearly 15%). The slopes didn’t lie, and the strongest riders clearly broke away, with Rudy Molard managing to keep up with the main favorites. At the top of this penultimate hill, barely fifteen men were still in the lead, and the Groupama-FDJ puncher briefly tried to break away before the descent. However, the hesitation didn’t last long behind him, so he didn’t insist, and the GC men then came all together at the bottom of the final climb (1.8 km at 7.5%), which was followed by a 1,500-meter false flat to reach the finish line. “Rudy’s instructions were to wait on the steep section, then give it a try when it was a bit more rolling, and take advantage of the favourites looking at each other to try and find an opening,” Jussi explained. “He eventually used his bullet when they broke away with six riders in the last kilometre. He really gave it his all, but he couldn’t recover for the final sprint. He made the right move, but it took all his energy out of him.”
Only Victor Langellotti was able to catch Brandon McNulty to claim victory after a tremendous effort. Rudy Molard, meanwhile, finished with the rest of the group, eight seconds behind, in fourteenth place. On Saturday, the Frenchman sits in the same position overall, 44 seconds behind the rider from Monaco. On Sunday, the Tour de Pologne will conclude with a 12.5-kilometres solo effort. “The Vuelta is coming in two short weeks, and there will be a team time trial and an individual time trial,” concluded Jussi. “So the goal is for everyone to be 100% committed tomorrow to work on that, and it is of course a goal in itself for Stefan.”
