Tour de Pologne 2025 Stage 2

August 5, 2025 The start and the finish are relatively close to each other within the city of Karpacz but the riders make an excursion into the countryside for 149KM before they can finish their day. A 5.5KM, 4.5% climb right out of the gate will get the race kicked off early. Then a 94KM clock-wise circuit takes the riders out to Grzędy before turning South to Różana before coming back around towards Karpacz. A 26KM circuit is taken on twice with one climb on each lap, the Przełęczy Średnica, which is 3.8KM at 3.7% with the last kilometer at 6%. The second passage up Przełęczy Średnica tops out 19KM before the finish. There is a 7KM downhill until the start of the final rise to the finish. The road properly rises with 6KM to go. The first 3KM are at 5% and the last 3KM at around 7% which should make for an interesting selection and finale to today's stage. Four riders rolled off the front of the peloton when the flag dropped including Max Walker of EF-Education EasyPost, Patrick Gamper of Jayco AlUla, and Tomasz Budziński and Patryk Stosz of the Polish National Team. The gap was 4 minutes with Visma-Lease a Bike setting a pace as the break neared the summit of the first climb with 138KM to go. Gamper got a jump and Budziński was forced to close a decent gap but he came with speed and pipped Gamper on the line to take maximum points. Gamper was also beaten at the intermediate sprint by Stosz at 114KM to go through the town of Czarny Bór. The roads changed from yesterday's stage, moving away from the large four-lane roads and on to country lanes lined by large trees and farm fields on either side. Niklas Behrens of Visma-Lease did almost all of the pace making in the peloton and had the break pegged around 3 minutes. Stosz dropped out of the break leaving the other three to fend off the chase of Behrens. Teams started to cluster near the front with 67KM to go as the 4KM, 4% climb of Przełęcz Kowarska approached. The pace was high on the climb but it was more of a drag so the bunch was still together over the top. The race continued in a holding pattern as Budziński led, uncontested, over the Przełęczy Średnica with 38.5KM to go, 50 seconds ahead of the peloton. On the second time up Przełęczy Średnica, Walker attacked the break and went clear alone. Over the top with 18.5KM to go, Walker had 30 seconds on Gamper and Budziński and 1 minute 10 seconds on the peloton who were still sitting patiently. Off the descent at 10KM to go, Walker held over 1 minute but the peloton finally woke up and Alpecin-Deceuninck and Ineos were driving the pace. Things started to get hard for Walker as the road tipped up and he was caught with 5KM to go as UAE-XRG were driving. Nearly the full peloton was still together under 3KM from the finish but the rear door was open 1KM later when the gradient went to over 6%. Decathlon AG2R and Groupama-FDJ were swapping turns at the front but no teams were sitting together and it was each rider for themselves in the top 20 positions. Michał Kwiatkowski of Ineos took the bunch through the final kilometer with Magnus Sheffield on his wheel. Kwiatkowski did a a long turn and finally pulled off at 400M. Jan Christen of UAE-XRG went immediately after, followed by Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek. They all went too early however because Paul Lapeira of Decathlon AG2R went right around and hit the line with a full 2 second gap. A small cluster of riders came in at 2 seconds, led by Vacek for second on the stage and Victor Langellotti of Ineos in third. With the bonus seconds at the finish and the time gap, Lapeira now leads overall by 6 seconds to Vacek and 8 seconds to Langellotti.