OVERALL VICTORY FOR MATEJ MOHORIČ IN POLAND THE CULMINATION OF A WEEK OF PERFECT TEAMWORK

On Friday afternoon in Kraków, and supported by his teammates as he has been all week, Matej Mohorič took the seventh GC title of his career, and the top step of the podium at the Tour de Pologne.

It was an especially poignant day for him, given that the win came in the shadow of the devastating floods that have hit his home country in the preceding hours.

The whole day I was thinking of the events this morning in Slovenia. There were huge floods, and so many people are in real difficulty, losing everything, or even their lives. But we are a proud nation and we will stand together and unite. I will help personally, financially as much as I can, and I feel for all the families who are struggling right now at home.”

A crash on the opening day couldn’t stop the Slovenian winning stage two at Karpacz, ahead of Joāo Almeida (UAE) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos). Those bonus seconds gave him the leader’s jersey, and those same three riders occupied the podium, in that order, from then on.

A frustrated runner up the next day, after admitting that a slight hesitation lost him the stage, and another second place on Wednesday, meant Mohorič had a 12 second gap over the Portuguese on the starting ramp for the decisive individual time trial.

Both Almeida and Kwiatkowski were expected to beat Mohorič against the clock, which they did, but by riding out of his skin(suit) in Katowice, the race leader limited his losses and ended the penultimate day on the exact same time as the UAE rider.

Well, 74 hundredths of a second ahead, to be precise.

Tour de Pologne 2023 – 80th Edition – 7th stage Zabrze – Krakow 166.6 km – 02/08/2023 – Matej Mohoric (SLO – Bahrain – Victorious) – Joao Almeida (POR – UAE Team Emirates) – photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023

And so to the finale, starting in Zabrze, and there were bonus seconds available at the intermediate sprint. The possibility of UAE planning an ambush kept Bahrain alert and watchful … this race was far from over. And so it proved.

In parallel lines of seven, the two teams rode side by side, leading out their GC men, but the white jerseys were no match for the likes of Kamil Gradek, Fran Miholjević and the last man, Andrea Pasqualon. The latter jousted hard and fair with Pascal Ackermann to place Matej in the perfect position, and won.

Tour de Pologne 2023 – 80th Edition – 7th stage Zabrze – Krakow 166.6 km – 02/08/2023 – Andrea Pasqualon (ITA – Bahrain – Victorious) – Matej Mohoric (SLO – Bahrain – Victorious) – Joao Almeida (POR – UAE Team Emirates) – photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023

In fact, Mohoric not only prevented Almeida from finishing ahead of him, but also took the maximum time bonus, extending his lead to a whole second! The two riders bumped fists in recognition that their duel was over. It was a great display of sportsmanship, in this great sport.

From then on it was a question of protecting our captain until the end, and with guards like Damiano Caruso, Antonio Tiberi and Matevž Govekar – all of whom had kept him safe for 1,113.4 km – there was never any doubt that they would do so again.

Tour de Pologne 2023 – 80th Edition – 7th stage Zabrze – Krakow 166.6 km – 02/08/2023 – Matej Mohoric (SLO – Bahrain – Victorious) – photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023

This win is special, because it really was team effort – a huge effort actually,” said the winner afterwards.

“I would never have been able to pull this off without my teammates. Every single one of them was incredibly strong. I am super happy, and even more proud of how this team has evolved through the years, because this is the best ‘team’ performance I have been involved in.

Tour de Pologne 2023 – 80th Edition – 7th stage Zabrze – Krakow 166.6 km – 02/08/2023 – Matej Mohoric (SLO – Bahrain – Victorious) – Bahrain – Victorious – photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023

Lead Sports director Michal Golaś, who with his co-DS Enrico Poitschke, was instrumental in formulating the winning strategy day by day, agreed.

It was a great performance all week, and amazing teamwork. One of the best I have ever seen. The boys have made me, and all of us, so proud

Matej Mohorič is the 2023 Tour of Poland champion, and along with the yellow jersey he also topped the points classification.

Cycling is a sport where an individual lifts the trophy, but where each teammate is indispensable and integral to every win. 

The record books will say that the 80th Tour de Pologne was won by Matej Mohorič.

It was, but there were seven heroes in Poland this week.

There is no doubt that it was the Team, Bahrain, Victorious.

Tour de Pologne 2023 – 80th Edition – 7th stage Zabrze – Krakow 166.6 km – 02/08/2023 – Matej Mohoric (SLO – Bahrain – Victorious) – photo Ilario Biondi/SprintCyclingAgency©2023
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