Danny van Poppel has finished fifth in the first stage of the Tour of Poland. The 25-year-old sprinter of Team LottoNL-Jumbo was well-placed, but had to start his sprint from too far.

The relatively flat stage in and around Krakow was characterized by the traditional early breakaway. Partly due to the actions of Team LottoNL-Jumbo, the break was chased down. In the final, Van Poppel was perfectly brought into position by Lars Boom, Gijs Van Hoecke and Tom Leezer. In the technical, curvy final, there was a lot of elbow throwing, after which the lead-out of Van Poppel got boxed in.

Sports director Grischa Niermann had seen a very strong team nevertheless. “The intention was to go for Van Poppel today. In the beginning, a breakaway got established with De Marchi. We then decided to join forces with Bora and QuickStep to give them little space. In the final, we were well-positioned with Lars, Gijs and Tom as lead-out for Danny. Only in the last corner  Gijs got pushed after which they got boxed in. Tom tried to get Danny back in position but it was in vain. But we’ll keep trying. Also regarding getting the routine down on Danny’s lead-out, that’s also very important.”