Ackermann makes it two out of two in Tour de Pologne

For all the slight confusion surrounding his top speed on the downhill sprint that decided stage two of the Tour de Pologne, one thing has already become abundantly clear about Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe): In the bunch sprints in Eastern Europe's premier stage race this year, no-one is going quicker than the German sprinter.

Ackermann told reporters after the stage his recorded top speed was 105kph on the 900 metre downhill into Katowice, rated - precisely because of the descent and the fearsome velocities reached upon it - as the most emblematic finish for bunch sprints in the Tour de Pologne. If definitively confirmed, the German's speed which would pulverize the previous unofficial record of 80.8kph for the Katowice descent, set by Jonas Van Genechten in 2014.

Given its very unusual characteristics, the Katowice finale is a notoriously tricky one, with sprinters often changing their gearing and tactics to try and outpace their rivals, and certainly Ackermann's radical change of line in the closing metres with Alvaro Hodeg (Quick-Step Floors) in his wake, was certainly not in the unwritten race manual of standard sprint tactics.

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But the German told reporters afterwards, a change of strategy was virtually inevitable on the long, straight downhill finishing straight into Katowice.

"We knew was a really difficult fast sprint so we had to come [at it] from the back," Ackermann said, "you are not able to sprint from the front.

"So we said OK, that's why we have to go from the back, so we have to come at it with the high speed."

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