Racing
Marijn van den Berg wins stage five of the Tour of Poland
Dutchman times sprint to perfection on the kick in Bielsko-Biala
August 2, 2023
Marijn van den Berg didn’t look back until he had crossed the finish line.
Then, he raised one arm to the air and pointed to the EF Education-EasyPost logo on his chest. Marijn was bike lengths ahead of second-place. After just missing out on yesterday’s stage, he had won his first-ever WorldTour victory on stage five of the Tour of Poland.
It was no simple bunch sprint. Today’s 198.8-km stage of the Polish tour journeyed into the Beskid Mountains on its way from Pszczyna to the urban circuit in Bielsko-Biala in the south of the country. There, the race would take on a lap with a two-and-a-half-kilometer hill three times, before the final sprint to its top. Marijn set out this morning determined to make it to that sprint.
“Yesterday went already pretty good, and I knew that today was going to be pretty hard,” he said after spraying champagne from the podium. “If I could survive the climbs, probably a lot of sprinters would be gone, so I would have a bigger chance, so I fought for it today, and in the end my sprint was good.”
It sure was. Marijn was focused from the start. After making the select group that split off the front on the final circuit, he kept his nerve and his calm, surfing wheels at the front of the pack and out of the wind. At the base of the final climb, Stefan Bissegger ramped up the pace to make sure Marijn’s rivals couldn’t attack from behind. Once Stefan pulled off, Marijn waited and waited as others started their sprints early on the uphill drag. And then he went and left them all in his dust.
Today’s victory is further proof of the progress Marijn has made this season. After his earlier wins at the Trofeo Ses Salines - Alcudia and La Route d’Occitanie-La Dèpêche du Midi, the Dutch sprinter now has three victories so far this year. This one at the Tour of Poland is certainly the biggest one of his career. It is a reward for his dedication and versatility. The harder the race, the better for Mariijn.
“I worked pretty hard and did a good training camp before this race,” Marijn says. “At first, I wasn’t supposed to race here actually, because I was supposed to do Denmark, so I came in late, but I am glad I did.”
We are too. Congratulations Marijn! Gefeliciteerd!