Bad weather and poor visibility forced the organizers to cancel stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne which was the queen stage of the race. Having shortened it several times, they called off the race when the race finally got underway and the riders only did one neutralized lap of the circuit. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) retains the lead.

A few years ago, the Tour de Pologne was marred by torrential rain. At that time, it was held in September and so the organizers decided to move it to the summer to enjoy better weather for their WorldTour race.

The move was a success as the event has mostly had nice condition since the move but the 2016 edition has been an exception. After four sunny days, the first hilly stage yesterday was marred by torrential rain that saw 86 out of 186 riders abandon the race. Today things were even worse in the queen stage and ultimately the stage was cancelled.

After yesterday’s epic stage, the riders faced an even tougher challenge in the queen stage which was set to bring the riders over 194km through the hilly terrain around Bukowina Tatrzanska. From the start at the Bukovina Resort, the riders were set to cover five laps of a 38.9km circuit that had three categorized climbs and an uncategorized ascent to the finish. It had a steep section of 11% with 2km to go and from there it averaged 2-3%.

Unfortunately, bad weather forced the organizers to shorten the stage by cutting first one lap and then two laps to reduce the distance to 117km. When they had gathered for the start, they took the decision to skip another lap and postpone the stage by another 30 minutes.

The riders finally took the start at 15.50 local time but due to poor visibility, they decided to take it easy. Officially the race was on and Maxime Monfort was even announced as the winner of the first KOM sprint head of teammates Sander Armee, Tim Wellens, Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale) and Davide Villella (Cannondale). However, the organizers soon decided to cancel the stage and from there, the riders just rolled slowly to the finish.

With the decision, Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) is almost guaranteed the overall victory as he leads Davide Formolo (Cannondale) by 4.05. He faces an important test on the final when the riders will tackle the 25km time trial in Krakow. It’s an almost completely flat out-and-back course that suits the biggest specialists and will shape the final general classification.