After a near miss on Monday in the Tour de Pologne's first summit finish in Szczyrk, three days later Orica-Scott's Jack Haig could take a well-deserved first professional victory with another blazing late solo attack through the mountains of southern Poland.
Haig stormed away some 19 kilometres from the stage 6 finish on the relentlessly undulating second half of stage six's arduous hilly trek from Kopalnia Soli Wieliczka salt mine to the ski resort of Zakopane close to the Polish-Slovak border.
On Monday, Haig was caught at the foot of the final climb and then teammate Adam Yates tried for a stage victory before he was overtaken by Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing) half way up the ascent.
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But on Thursday, it was the Australian who clinched the win, while Yates, ninth in the chase group, kept guard and chased down the counter-attacks once Haig had gone clear. Yates was the first of his teammates to give Haig a big congratulatory hug after the finish line, too.
Just 23, Haig has had some promising results up to now, including a second place in the 2015 Tour de L'Avenir behind young Spanish climber Marc Soler (Movistar) and two top-three overall finishes in the Tour of Slovenia this summer and last.
But it was finally in Poland that he netted his first outright success, with his stage win following up teammate Caleb Ewan's victory on Tuesday and Luka Mezgec's runner-up spot on Wednesday, as well as some strong riding by Adam Yates. Both Haig and Yates are still in the overall running, with Yates moving up to sixth, 19 seconds down on race leader Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team) and Haig jumping 11 places to 12th, 43 seconds back. With one hilly stage on Friday remaining, as Teuns put it, "[Haig] is back in the game now."
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