The Tour de Pologne was left in an unusual situation on Thursday with the CCC Team trying to refuse the jersey of race leader following the horrific crash on stage 1 that took down all of the top finishers.
Officials disqualified Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma), who crossed the line first. Deceuninck-Quickstep's Fabio Jakobsen, who crashed violently just before the line after a clash with Groenewegen, remains in serious but stable condition in hospital with grievous injuries.
Marc Sarreau (Groupama-FDJ), who tumbled across the line - technically in third place - after smashing into the barricade torn loose by the force of Jakobsen's crash, exited the race with torn ligaments in his shoulder.
That left the yellow jersey on the shoulders of Poland's Kamil Małecki (CCC Team), who snapped up six seconds worth of time bonuses to put him two seconds ahead of Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott), who luckily avoided the mayhem in Katowice by sprinting up the opposite side of the road from Groenewegen and Jakobsen.
The CCC Team attempted to give the yellow jersey to Deceuninck-Quickstep, but said the rules prohibited them from giving it to Deceuninck-Quickstep, whose next-placed rider was Remco Evenepoel in 21st place.
"CCC Team was last night informed by the Tour de Pologne race organizers that Kamil Malecki would technically be race leader on stage 2 after the terrible crash involving Fabio Jakobsen," the team stated.
"In light of the circumstances and out of respect for Fabio and Marc Sarreau, who was also injured in the crash, both the team and Kamil do not feel it is appropriate for Kamil to wear the leader's jersey and have instead requested that the jersey be given to Deceuninck-Quickstep for stage 2. However, this was not possible due to race regulations.
"All of our thoughts are with Fabio, his family and friends, and the entire Deceuninck-Quickstep team, and we wish Fabio well in his recovery."
