For Christen, the win in Poland marked the ninth victory of his career – and his first at WorldTour level. The 22-year-old also moved up to fourth place in the general classification. He is now 18 seconds behind Lemmen, who managed to defend his leader’s jersey on the 219-kilometre stage from Opole to the Kocierz Resort in the Carpathians. Brenner is third overall, 15 seconds behind Lemmen. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) sits between them.

​“I knew everyone was waiting for me to attack, so I waited patiently,” said Christen at the finish. “When I saw that the others were struggling, I made my move – even though my back was still really sore after yesterday’s crash. In the final metres, I saved my energy for the final sprint, which secured me the victory. Today’s varied course suited me very well,” said the UAE pro, who has already achieved his target. “We’ve come here with a team of four, so there’s no pressure on us. I’ve already got a stage win under my belt, so I’m approaching the coming days calmly and without any pressure.”

2026 Tour de Pologne – Results of Stage 5

Here’s how the third stage of the 2026 Tour de Pologne unfolded

Another stage covering more than 200 kilometres. With Dries De Bondt (Team Jayco AlUla) in the mountains’ jersey and Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), two prominent names launched an early attack, which was joined shortly afterwards by Tim Naberman (Team Picnic PostNL) and Filip Maciejuk (Movistar Team). A little while later, Taco van der Hoorn (Lotto Intermarché) also caught up with them. As has so often been the case during this tour, the five-man breakaway’s lead remained small.

Around the halfway point of the race, Remi Cavagna (Groupama – FDJ United) and De Bondt’s team-mate Patrick Gamper caught up with two other riders in a counter-attack. By 80 kilometres from the finish, the new group had built up a lead of just under two minutes.

De Bondt picked up further points on the Przegibek Pass (Category 1). The breakaway maintained a 40-second lead over the peloton. There were still 28 kilometres to go to the finish. However, those who had been dropped from the breakaway managed to rejoin the group before the final climb. The breakaway riders then managed to regain a few seconds.

Christen attacked, Brenner hits back

Van der Hoorn, Magnier, Cavagna and Gamper were the remaining breakaway riders six kilometres from the finish; they had a lead of just under 20 seconds, but 2,000 metres later it was all over. Shortly afterwards, the steep section began, with gradients of up to 20 per cent. Neilson Powless (EF Education – EasyPost) pushed hard there, but initially no gap opened up.

With 2,100 metres to go, Jan Christen then stepped up the pace. Neither Lemmen nor Scaroni, nor Finn Fisher-Black and Aleksandr Vlasov of Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, were willing to close the gap, which is why the Swiss rider quickly built up a 20-second lead. However, there was still a long way to go. Around the 1,000-metre mark – where the terrain levelled out again – Brenner launched his attack. Juan Guillermo Martinez (Team Picnic PostNL) was initially still with the German, but Brenner soon left him behind.

With 400 metres to go, Brenner was alongside Christen, but instead of taking a brief breather, he immediately moved up to the front and tried to shake off his rival before a possible sprint. However, he did not succeed. Christen proved to be the faster of the two as they rode wheel-to-wheel.