Phil Bauhaus took victory away from Alvaro Hodeg with his bike throw on stage one of the Tour of Poland 2021.
The opening stage of the WorldTour race finished on a technical cobbled uphill stretch, with Deceuninck - Quick-Step sprinter Hodeg attacking early 300m from the finish.
While the Colombian looked like he had powered clear of the bunch on the incline to the line, Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) put in a huge surge to sneak past right at the line, marking the sixth win of the year for the German.
Bauhaus now leads overall by four seconds to Hodeg, with six stages remaining.
How it happened
The long 216km run from Lublin to Chełm, which replaces the now-banned opening stage into Katowice, featuring three categorised ramps in the opening half, with countless unmarked climbs spread along the course.
Early in the day three riders pulled out a gap to establish the breakaway, with Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana-Premier Tech), Sean Bennett (Qhubeka-NextHash) and Michał Paluta (Polish national team) getting a seven-minute advantage over the early climbs.
Deceuninck - Quick-Step controlled the pace on the front of the bunch and pulled the gap back down to two minutes with around 100km to race.
With 50km to race, attacks began to come flying from the bunch as the attackers were caught 3km later.
More attacks followed in the final 30km, with Tom Scully (EF Education-Nippo), Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ), and Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) getting a gap, eventually being caught 15km from the line to set up the bunch gallop for the line.
Ineos Grenadiers were pulled on the front in the final kilometres before Deceuninck took over in the final 3km, setting up Hodeg for his surprise attack 400m from the line.
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It looked as though Hodeg had escaped the group for the win, but Bauhaus sprinted late and passed Hodeg to take the stage and the leader's jersey.
The race continues with a punchy uphill finish after 200km of racing from Zamość Prezemyśl.
Tour of Poland 2021, stage one: Lublin to Chełm (216.4km)
1. Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain Victorious, in 5-01-24
2. Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Deceuninck - Quick-Step
3. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Israel Start-Up Nation
4. Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
5. David Dekker (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
6. Dion Smith (Nzl) BikeExchange
7. Jonas Rickaert (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
8. Biniam Ghirmay (Eri) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
9. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain Victorious
10. Michał Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers, all at same time
General classification after stage one
1. Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain Victorious, in 5-01-24
2. Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 4s
3. Yevgeniy Fedorov (Kaz) Astana-Premier Tech, at same time
4. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 6s
5. Michał Kwiatkowksi (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers, at 7s
6. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain Victorious, at 8s
7. Emila Liepinš (Lat) Trek-Segafredo, at 9s
8. Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo, 10s
9. David Dekker (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
10. Dion Smith (Nzl) BikeExchange, all at same time
