Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) paid the price for getting bumped around on the final corner of stage 4 at Tour de Pologne as 21-year-old Dutchman Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) took a very impressive victory, his seventh of the season.
As Bennett rounded the final bend with about 250 metres to go some of the riders ahead of him appeared to pull out of the gallop, slowing those immediately behind. The Irish rider got bumped around a little, as Kooij had no such problems, benefitting from a generous lead-out from Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ).
Kooij ran out a very comfortable winner - after 199.1km of racing into Opole - from Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) and Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team). The messy nature of the final corner for those a little further back in the bunch meant there was no prospect of recovering positions, with Bennett having to settle for 5th place.
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Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla) and Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) both finished in the bunch on the same time as the stage winner. Dunbar moves up three places overall to 5th, but only by virtue of his finishing position as there were no changes in time towards the top of the general classification.
Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), who won stage 2, continues to lead overall. He has a 10-second advantage over both João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates), who are 2nd and 3rd.
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Dunbar is one of six riders all equal on time, at 20 seconds. Today the riders face stage 5, the last chance for the race to split on the climbs, which are modest and frequent rather than bigger mountains that would suit Dunbar better.
The 198.8km stage from Pszczyna to Bielsko-Biala also includes a finishing circuit with a small climb each lap, to be tackled four times. Tomorrow is the stage 6 TT, of 16.6km, followed by Friday's final stage, which should be one for the sprinters.
