Standing by the side of the barriers after the finish of the Tour de Pologne's stage 6 with just a soigneur for company, BMC Racing Team's Dylan Teuns kept glancing nervously at a giant TV screen to see the GC results as soon as possible. Finally, though, it was a UCI commissaire who came hurrying across the tarmac to tell the young Belgian the words he wanted to hear: "Yellow. Yellow jersey."
The winner of the first mountainous stage of the race on Monday and running second overall since then, Teuns has moved into the overall lead after Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) cracked badly with some 25 kilometres to go.
A cat-and-mouse battle ensued in the lead group of 11, containing almost all the main favourites, but although the Belgian could not stop Jack Haig (Orica-Scott) from breaking away, he still kept a firm enough grasp on his rivals to ensure he has the lead. But only just.
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12th and last of the group to finish on the long, uphill drag to Zakopane, Teuns kept a six-second advantage over Rafael Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) with Wilco Keldermann (Team Sunweb) in third at 10 seconds back. But with 12 riders within 43 seconds on the overall – stage winner Jack Haig is the furthest adrift of the real GC threats – the battle for what would be BMC Racing's first ever victory in the Tour de Pologne is far from resolved in Teuns' favour.
"We knew when Haig attacked we could give him a little bit of time because he was already two minutes down," Teuns said afterwards. "But now he's back also in the [GC] game."
There was a moment where Teuns had almost lost his chance at the race lead when Majka and Kelderman followed an attack from Sky's Wout Poels, and he was on the wrong side of the split.
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