With many teams interested in having a representative in the breakaway, it was not an easy task for a group to go clear early in the stage but, eventually, a 14-man group pulled away and established a three-minute lead.
The breakaway included the CCC Team duo of Geschke and Serge Pauwels, and since the German was sitting in third place in the King of the Mountains standings before the stage, it was important for him to fight for points on all of the categorized climbs and in the end, he won the first KOM in Rzepiska and was in the top three on the remaining climbs.
The gap began to decrease inside the final 60 kilometers and before the second intermediate sprint, Matej MohoriÄ (Bahrain-Merida) decided to attack solo from the front of the race, opening up a one-minute lead while the rest of the breakaway split on the category one Åšcianka Bukowina.
Eventually, after chasing hard behind the solo leader, Geschke was caught by the main group of General Classification favorites with 36 kilometers to go but, he was able to remain in the bunch and sprint to third place on the final categorized ascent, securing the overall win in the Mountains classification as a result.
Geschke was also the first CCC Team rider across the line in Bukowina TatrzaÅ„ska, finishing in 12th place behind MohoriÄ on stage seven and 19th overall in the General Classification, won by Pavel Sivakov (Team INEOS).
Quotes from the Finish Line:
Simon Geschke
"You always want to win, especially at a home race and as a Polish WorldTour team, this is our home race. We came here to win a stage but, at this level, it’s never easy and instead, we go home with the mountain jersey, which is a nice reward for an offensive race. We tried to race as aggressively as we could.”
"It was not really planned to go for the jersey as what we wanted to go for was the stage win and possibly the top ten overall. Going into the breakaway was the best way to achieve that and I’m happy that I could be up there together with Serge Pauwels. I kept taking points on a regular basis but I won only one KOM. The magenta jersey wearer at the start of the day, Tomasz MarczyÅ„ski was dropped earlier than me and in the end, I was able to win the classification but, after crossing the line I didn’t even know I had taken the victory.”
Race profile
Tour de Pologne
Stage 7: Bukowina Resort - Bukowina Tatrzańska (153.3km)
Top 3: 1. Matej MohoriÄ (Bahrain Merida) 2. Neilson Powless (Team Jumbo-Visma) 3. Gianluca Brambilla (Trek - Segafredo)
CCC Team Top 3: 12. Simon Geschke 42. Åukasz Owsian 73. Kamil Gradek
Top 3 in GC: 1. Pavel Sivakov (Team INEOS) 2. Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) 3. Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates)
CCC Team Top 3 in GC: 19. Simon Geschke 42. Åukasz Owsian 63. Serge Pauwels
