Ryan Mullen took a top 10 placing on today's stage 5 at Tour de Pologne after his Bora-hansgrohe team mate Sam Bennett was among the riders held up by a crash in the final kilometre.
Continuing the trend of sketchy stage finishes in Poland, the riders had to negotiate a sweeping right hander with about 800m to go. One of the Jumbo Visma riders appeared to skid out on that corner, with a number of others also coming down, some crashing through the crowd control barriers.
The biggest impact was the crashed riders holding up those behind them as just eight men at the front escaped the pile-up and went on to contest the sprint for victory. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Merida) and Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) were the only two big sprint names to make the front group; the German getting the better of the Frenchman for victory.
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Mullen, who was trying to position Bennett for the finish when the crash occurred, was the first rider to weave his way through the chaos and he sprinted in for 8th place. Bennett eventually finished in 136th place and was credited with the same time as the winner as the crash occurred in the final 3km.
It was a frustrating end to the stage for the Carrick-on-Suir man as he really needs a victory to stake a claim in his team's line-up for the upcoming Vuelta. Bora-hansgrohe's Sergio Higuita still holds the race lead in Poland ahead of tomorrow's TT stage.
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Final accidentado en la quinta etapa del @Tour_de_Pologne.pic.twitter.com/U9bHoOJq9x— LA RUEDA COLOMBIA 🚴🇨🇴🚴 (@LaRuedaColombia) August 3, 2022
