Olav Kooij (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) has won the opening stage of the Tour of Poland. The Dutchman clearly beat Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jensen Plowright (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the bunch sprint on stage 1 and thus also took the overall lead.

Kooij went into the 200-kilometre day from Wrocław to Legnica, which was almost completely free of topographical difficulties, as the big favourite and lived up to this role, although not everything went perfectly in the preparation for the sprint. Although U23 world champion Niklas Behrens worked hard as the penultimate man into the final kilometre, there were a few tricky situations on the home straight. However, there were no crashes in the absolute final. "We briefly lost sight of each other in the chaos, but I was able to fight my way to the front at the right moment," said Kooij in the winner's interview.

It was the sixth win of the season for Kooij, who clearly beat Magnier and Plowright in the positions behind him. The tour generally suits him well. Kooij won two stages here last year and also celebrated his first victory at WorldTour level in Poland in 2022. He has now won a total of five stages - nowhere else has the 23-year-old achieved more of his 42 victories. "It's the fourth year in a row that I've won a stage here," said Kooij. "I already had a lot of positive memories of this race, so it's great to add another one."

The best German at the start of the first WorldTour race after the Tour de France was Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) in ninth place.

Tour of Poland 2025 - Results of the 1st stage

>> The start list of the Tour de Pologne 2025

>> This is the route of the Tour of Poland 2025

This is how the 1st stage of the Tour of Poland 2025 went

154 riders set off, initially in the rain, on stage 1 of the Tour of Poland 2025, the flattest section of the tour - apart from the final time trial. Four riders set out to dominate the day: Lars Boven (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Donavan Grondin (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Nadav Raisberg (Israel - Premier Tech) and Patryk Stosz (Polish National Team).

The first intermediate sprint was on the programme after just 18 kilometres, with Boven crossing the line first. In the second sprint after 45 kilometres, the original quartet was just a trio after Raisberg dropped back. At this point, it was clear that the peloton would keep the breakaway on a tight leash. They were allowed a maximum of two minutes. A mass crash in the peloton did nothing to change this, which took twelve pros to the ground but did not seriously affect any of them.

Mollema secures the mountain jersey

Grondin secured that second classification. After that, almost 100 kilometres were on the programme without any further events. At least the road was drying out. With 60 kilometres to go, Grondin also secured the third intermediate sprint. Shortly afterwards, Stosz lost his strength and dropped back into the peloton. 38 kilometres before the finish, it was the end for the remaining two.

This meant that the mountain classification was decided from the peloton. Bauke Mollema (Lidl - Trek) secured the only points of the day with a short and determined attack and thus also the jersey. Ineos and Visma then increased their presence at the front of the peloton and led the field into the finale.

A crash 1600 metres before the finish took a few riders out of the game, but in the end even that went off lightly. However, the sprint finish was somewhat disorganised. Also because Madis Mihkels (EF Education - EasyPost) slipped off the pedals around 500 metres before the finish and created a huge wave, but nobody fell victim to it. Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl - Trek) then tried to capitalise on this. When he started his sprint, however, there were still more than 300 metres to go. The gap he opened up in the meantime was not enough for the top 10 in the end. The big favourite Kooij then secured victory by half a bike length ahead of Magnier.