The dust had barely settled on Matej Mohorič’s stunning Tour de France third week stage victory before the Bahrain Victorious rider claimed yet more racing success at the Tour de Pologne this weekend, clinching a tough uphill victory against João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) on stage 2 and the overall lead into the bargain.
As things stand, Mohorič leads overall by four seconds on Almeida, and has a 10-second advantage on another former winner, Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), with the rest of the field further back.
Tour de Pologne is traditionally decided by minimal margins, and reigning Portuguese national time trial champion Almeida could well be in a position to challenge his lead on Thursday’s race against the clock. But on the other hand, Mohorič may try to distance his rivals on a short, viciously steep ramp in the final kilometre of Monday’s stage 3. The race in other words remains wide open.
“We’ll see about the rest of the race, I also have overall ambitions,” Mohorič said after winning stage 2, “but it won’t be easy with the TT. Monday’s stage, though, could be another one for me to try to win.”
“Tomorrow [Monday] is an interesting stage, with a lot of climbs, a long descent off the last one then a tricky uphill finish. So it will likely be a very reduced group again, so maybe there’s a chance to go for a stage win.”
“I have felt incredibly strong, all day, today and in fact since Wednesday when I first went training after the Tour, so I definitely want to make the most of it in this race and in the rest of the season.”
It’s easier said than done, but Mohorič did not have too many problems staying on track for Pologne after the Tour de France, he told Cyclingnews earlier on Sunday and prior to his win, with just a couple of training rides and a visit to his family on his schedule prior to heading to Poznan for Saturday’s start.
“I’m not a huge party animal,” he said, “I had a very nice dinner with the team in Paris and then I travelled back home to my family.”
“I did three and a half hours training on Wednesday, four and a half on Thursday, and then rested Friday and here we are now.”
Pologne is a race where Mohorič has shone in the past. As Almeida pointed out after stage 2, the top three finishers this year on Karpacz stage 2 are the same three that finished on the GC podium in 2021 - with the Portuguese rider the winner, Mohorič in second and Kwiatkowski in third.
“I think I can be happy with second, Matej was pretty strong, also in the last few hundred metres I had to switch to a big chainring because Matej was on a small one, so I lost one metre there, which maybe cost me the victory,” Almeida told Cyclingnews after stage 2.
“We had three leaders here, me, Rafal (Majka) and Brandon [McNulty], we are pretty strong, wanted to play with different cards.”
“Rafal almost made it, if it was not Matej closed the gap, perhaps he could have done it. But in any case, it was pretty good.”
Mohorič's previous stage victory in Pologne was something of a minor epic in itself, when in 2019 on the final day he attacked solo some 57 kilometres from the line and stayed away all to the finish. As Cyclingnews reported at the time “Mohorič pointed to the sky as he crossed the line, dedicating his victory to Bjorg Lambrecht, who tragically died after crashing on stage 3 of the race.”
“I was aiming to go for GC in 2019, but I messed up on the first mountain stage and I bonked,” Mohorič recalled when he talked to Cyclingnews on Sunday morning, just hours before taking his second stage victory in Pologne.
“And then I was angry with myself the following day and there was no other choice but to go all in and I managed to win the stage.”
“Pologne has a route which suits me a lot because the climbs are punchy and short, and there are lots of them.”
One of the reasons I do this job is to inspire people
Mohorič's comments after his photo-finish stage win against Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) in Poligny in the Tour de France last week drew widespread praise for his moving and clear-sighted description of the suffering involved in professional cycling. Looking back on it in Pologne and asked if he had expected such a massive and positive reaction to his words, he told Cyclingnews he was both “touched and surprised by this, because one of the reasons I do this job is to inspire people, and to have that many people looking up to you and perhaps making a change for the better in their lives makes me a happier person.”
“So I was proud of what we’ve achieved as a team and I was also proud of my speech touching so many people.”
“I guess it was relatable to almost everyone because we all have struggles in our everyday lives and sometimes it’s hard to put these struggles into words but I managed to do so and the fact that I inspired people makes me feel good.”
He had, he said, no regrets about his decision not to go to the World Championships, because “I saw the level there was in the Tour and it was very high,” and also because strategically he felt that Slovenia would have a very hard time of making an impact in Glasgow.
“On a course like at Glasgow it’s almost impossible to score a result if you are not in control of the race the whole day and I don’t think as a national team we would have been able to pull that together.”
“That’s because you need to stay out of trouble and stay in front of the chaos there is in a circuit like that with so many corners. So I think that the best nations with the strongest teams composed of mostly domestiques will be at a big advantage on that course.”
“Obviously at the time the decision was made, I hadn’t won a stage of the Tour and I had a design to do something with the great condition I’m in. But Tour of Pologne and Benelux [Renewi Tour] was a big part of this plan so I’m sticking to it for now.”
If the World Road Championships in Glasgow remain off the plan, then, there is one World Championships where Mohorič may yet feature before the end of 2023.
“I will do the Canada races and Tour of Croatia but maybe the Gravel World Championships as well,” he said, before warning, “I have never done a gravel race, but a lot of gravel riding, so we’ll see.”
Meantime, in any case, Mohorič is fully focused on Pologne and seeing where his next steps will be in central Europe’s top WorldTour race. Certainly after Sunday’s victory and move into the overall lead in Pologne, he has already proved he is one of the few Tour de France riders still hitting the jackpot even after the Champs Elysées celebrations have faded in cycling’s rear-view mirror. Recollections of his Tour stage win speech though, may yet linger for some time to come.
