Tim Merlier won a sprint finish on stage five of the Tour of Poland on Friday after a late crash kept several of the fast finishers out of the finale.
Merlier, of Soudal-QuickStep, timed his late burst well and flew past Jordi Meeus in the closing metres in Katowice. Thursday's winner Olav Kooij was third.
Overnight leader Jonas Vingegaard retained the top spot after the 187.6km run, finishing 30th at the same time as the winner.
"It wasn't an easy stage, to be honest," Denmark's two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard said. "There was a good breakaway out there and we had to go fast all day.
Diego Ulissi of UAE remains second overall at 19sec with Wilco Kelderman third at 20.
Norbert Banaszek of the Polish National Team and Xabier Mikel Azparren and Johan Jacobs of Movistar made the early running and opened a four minutes lead that wilted in the sizzling heat with 10km to go.
On Saturday the peloton cover 183 hilly kilometres starting in Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. On Sunday another sprint is expected at Krakow.
