Jai Hindley was the first rider home for Team DSM in 35th place at the end of the long 216.4 kilometre opening stage of the Tour de Pologne after the stage came down to a sprint finish in Chełm.

The stage didn’t take long to settle into a rhythm with three riders going clear early on and building their advantage to around six minutes at its peak before the peloton gradually started to reel them back in. The chase was fast but controlled, not causing any issues in the bunch, but with 40 kilometres to go the race was all back together sparking a number of attacks off the front.

A new breakaway of three riders formed, pushing out to nearly 50 seconds advantage at best but the bunch was in no mood to let them get too far ahead and the sprinters’ teams brought everything back together in the final 10 kilometres on the technical finishing circuit to set up a fast finish to the line.

Looking to set Max Kanter up for the finish, the team found themselves a little too far back on the finishing circuit and lost each other a few times in the run in to the finish leaving Kanter unable to contest the top places on the stage.

After the race, Team DSM coach Marc Reef commented: “It was a long day in the saddle today where we had the goal to sprint with Max at the finish. It was a fast final where we lost each other a few times and we were too far back when entering the closing circuit. The guys did well to still make it back to the front but in the end it was not far enough to sprint for placings on the stage, so in the end there was no result today.”