Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) won stage two of the Tour of Poland, beating Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) to take his biggest win of 2019.
Gaviria burst through from behind on the right, as Ackermann was caught in traffic on the left, but Mezgec hung onto the Colombian's wheel and then passed him to take the win.
The Colombian finished second, with Ackermann third, and Danny van Poppel (Jumbo-Visma) and Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ) rounded out the top five.
Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) finished 18th, his crash in the run-in on stage one leaving him without lasting injuries.
Ackermann retains the race lead, ahead of Gaviria by two seconds with stage three offering another opportunity for the sprinters to take the stage win.
How it happened
Stage two provided another opportunity for the sprinters, with Mark Cavendish hoping to suffer better fortune after being brought down in a crash 3km from the finish line on stage one.
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Route profile map of stage two of the Tour of Poland
Following his breakaway exploits on stage one, Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk) claimed the King of the Mountains jersey, and must have had a fun day out front yesterday as he got himself into the break once again.
Alongside Paweł Franczak (Poland), the duo were only allowed a 15 second gap after half an hour in the lead, with Franczak taking the intermediate sprint, before Ben Swift (Ineos) led the peloton over.
Planet took the next intermediate sprint, with Swift once again taking the peloton across, showing his intent in the points classification.
The Frenchman Planet then added another point to his KoM tally, with the escapees' advantage still only hovering around 20 seconds with 30km to go.
Planet again took another KoM point with 19km remaining before the duo were swept up by the bunch after another kilometre had passed.
Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck - Quick-Step shared the work at the front of the peloton as they went under 10km to go, with speeds reaching 67km/h.
Bob Jungels (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) led the peloton round a sweeping bend and under the 1km to go banner, before Trek-Segafredo took over, looking to lead out John Degenkolb.
Gaviria then came through, with Ackermann slightly behind, but Luka Mezgec was in the Colombian's wheel and came storming through from nowhere, easily passing both sprinters to take his biggest win of 2019.
Results
Tour of Poland 2019, stage two: Tarnowskie Góry to Katowice (152.7km)
1. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott, in 3-32-42
2. Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates
3. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Danny van Poppel (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
5. Marc Sarreau (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
6. Max Walscheid (Ger) Sunweb
7. Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First
8. Clément Venturini (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale
9. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
10. Enzo Wouters (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, all at same time
General classification after stage two
1. Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 6-30-26
2. Fernando Gaviria (Col) UAE Team Emirates, at 2 seconds
3. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Mitchelton-Scott, at 4s
4. Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 10s
5. Ben Swift (GBr) Ineos, at 12s
6. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain-Merida, at 13s
7. Quentin Jauregui (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, at same time
8. Danny van Poppel (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 14s
9. Max Walscheid (Ger) Sunweb
10. Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First, both at same time
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.
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