August 8, 2026
The final road stage is a complete contrast to all of the stages we have had so far. At just 125 km, the day is full of punchy climbs including three ascents of the Bukowina wall, a 1.6 km rise at nearly 10% average. The route is a figure eight, with one lap of a 40 km circuit before two full laps of the Bukowina wall circuit. Only one bonus sprint is on course, situated 41 km from the finish in Biały Dunajec. After the third passage of the Bukowina wall, the riders will exit the circuit to climb to the finish in Bukowina Tatrzańska, a beautiful mountain town in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains. The climb is categorized as 1.6 km at 8% but it continues to rise for another 1,500 meters to the line. It's a difficult day with 2,800 meters of climbing packed in tight and should go a long way in determining the overall winner tomorrow evening in Wieliczka.
Race Summary
An unnecessarily long 10 km neutral got everyone warmed up for the start at KM0, straight up a steep incline. The roads were constantly turning, climbing, and descending, making the course highly technical with positioning being paramount throughout. A group of around 20 riders split off the front and started the 5 km, 6% Sierockie with 25 seconds on the peloton. With the group being so large, it was not working and attacks went to break it up. All but Walter Calzoni of Pinarello Q36.5 was caught by the peloton at 115 km to go which itself was already greatly reduced due to the terrain and pace. 3 km later at the summit of Sierockie, Calzoni took the KOM points with sweeping views of rolling green hills and high craggy peaks further in the distance. He had 15 seconds on chaser Mikkel Bjerg of UAE-XRG and 25 seconds on the rest of the peloton who was led by Visma-Lease a Bike.
The next climb on course of the Słodyczki quickly followed the Sierockie and it was Bjerg who joined up with Calzoni to start the 3 km, 8% climb in the lead. Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ United, Sam Watson of Netcompany-Ineos, Jakub Kaczmarek of the Polish National Team, and Henri-François Renard-Haquin of Picnic-PostNL Raisin were chasing at 20 seconds but the peloton was not far behind. Calzoni took the prize atop Słodyczki still with the company of Bjerg but the composition of the chase had changed. Kaczmarek was gone but reinforcing the group was Magnus Sheffield of Netcompany-Ineos, Luca Vergallito of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Alessandro Borgo of Bahrain Victorious, and Steff Cras of T-Rex Quickstep. On the long descent with 100 km to go, Calzoni and Bjerg were caught which made a lead group of nine at 25 seconds from the peloton.
A holding pattern settled into the race and the lead group were able to build a slightly larger advantage of 55 seconds by the start of the 2 km, 9% climb to Pitoniówka with 75.5 km remaining. The gap stayed stable to the top where Calzoni took the KOM. The Italian started the day with 0 points in the KOM competition and added 20 points by the top of Pitoniówka. Without Dries De Bondt in the break to challenge, Calzoni was running freely towards taking the classification outright and needed just another category 1 to do so.
The riders entered the circuit and hit the first passage of the Sciana Bukowina (Bukowina wall) at 65 km to go. The gap from the break to the Visma-Lease a Bike led peloton was still around 55 seconds but the Dutch squad was ripping into the shallower lower slopes. By the time they reached the steep section, only 25 seconds separated the two groups. Calzoni was desperate to take the KOM points so he made an acceleration which was followed only by Cras and Sheffield. He sprinted to the line to take the points and the lead in the KOM classification. Only about 45 riders were left in the peloton when they crested the climb 25 seconds later as the race was becoming quite attritional.
The break regrouped with the exception of Bjerg and Renard-Haquin who were distanced and reabsorbed into the peloton. The break continued along the circuit passed the steep gabled wooden houses that are synonymous to this region. Sheffield rolled through the bonus sprint and the inflatable balloons in Biały Dunajec to take an uncontested 3 seconds still with a very tenuous lead of just 25 seconds.
Visma-Lease a Bike continued to pile on the pressure and swept the break up when they reached the steep section of nearly 20% with 37.5 km to go. Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious immediately countered and the favorites grouped stretched thin. Fifth overall Louis Barré of Visma-Lease a Bike leapt from the group and jumped across to Buitrago and the pair built a lead of around 15 seconds by the top. There was some looking around in the favorites group but Tobias Svarre of Uno-X Mobility and Frederik Wandahl of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe were decisive and went in pursuit of the two leaders. XDS-Astana were left on the backfoot and forced to chase but they had enough resources to haul back Svarre and Wandahl and were at 20 seconds and closing on Buitrago and Barré.
The leading duo held 20 seconds on the approach to the Bukowina wall but Barré stopped pulling and more teams were battling XDS-Astana for position to the steep ramps. Barré attacked Buitrago and went clear and there was no action from the rest of the favorites. Barré crested with 25 seconds on the favorites who had all but neutralized each other. At 10 km to go, attacks were flying in the GC group but it was start/stop and the gap did not budge from 25 seconds. XDS-Astana found the man power to organize a chase but could only bring the gap down to 20 seconds by the time Barré started the final climb with 4 km to go.
Barré was a man on a mission and outlasted the XDS-Astana chase. Just inside 3 km to go, XDS-Astana swung off and the gap went from 25 to 35 seconds in a heartbeat. Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe attacked but Bart Lemmen, race leader and Barré's teammate, closed the gap and shut the move down. Under the flamme rouge, Barré had 30 seconds which was more than enough to take the victory but the question was how much he would have. Attacks went flying in the last 500 meters but it came down to a sprint won by Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana with Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling just behind in third.
Scaroni crossed the line just 10 seconds after Barré and calculators were buzzing to work out the GC order. With bonuses at the finish factored in, Scaroni took over the race lead by just 3 seconds to Barré with Lemmen dropping to third at 5 seconds. Brenner is a close fourth at 11 seconds with Jan Christen leading the second tier of GC riders at 23 seconds in fifth.