Injured Jakobsen’s team-mate Evenepoel wins Tour of Poland after ’emotional week’

Jakobsen was injured in a horrifying crash on the race’s opening day earlier in the week and awoke from a medically-induced coma on Thursday.

“For the team the hardest part of this race was the situation with Fabio,” Evenepoel said after his ninth victory of the season.

“We’ve been through a lot of emotions this week and if you see how we finish it off – two stage wins in a row and we take the GC home – I think that we can only say that we have been dominating this race,” he added.

Belgian Evenepoel, 20, was 1 minutes 52 seconds ahead of Dane Jakob Fuglsang in second with Briton Simon Yates in third after five days of racing in the 77th edition of the event.

Team Ineos’ Richard Carapaz pulled out after a crash on Saturday despite leading the overall standings before Evenepoel grabbed the yellow jersey with a 51km solo win on stage four.

Italian Ballerini powered to victory in a bunched sprint by pipping Bora Hansgrohe’s Pascal Ackermann in second and Team Sunweb’s Alberto Dainese after 188 kilometres which finished with three laps in the southern city.

Stage results

1. Davide Ballerini (ITA/DEC) at 4 hours 31 minutes 22 seconds, 2. Pascal Ackermann (GER/BOR) at same time, 3. Alberto Dainese (ITA/SUN) s.t, 4. Ryan Gibbons (RSA/DDT) s.t, 5. Jasper Philipsen (BEL/UAE) s.t, 6. Rudy Barbier (FRA/ISN) s.t, 7. Sebastian Molano (COL/UAD) s.t, 8. Phil Bauhaus (GER/BAH) s.t, 9. Szymon Sajnok (POL/CCC) s.t, 10. Albert Torres (ESP/MOV) s.t.

Overall results

1. Remco Evenepoel (BEL/DEC) at 21 hours 29 minutes 50 seconds, 2. Jakob Fuglsang (DEN/AST) at 1min 52secs, 3. Simon Yates (GBR/MIT) 2:28, 4. Rafal Majka (POL/BOR) 2:32, 5. Diego Ulissi (ITA/UAE) 3:09, 6. Kamil Malecki (POL/CCC) 3:12, 7. Wilco Kelderman (NED/SUN) 3:15, 8. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN/TJV) 3:18. 9. Mikel Nieve (ESP/MIT) same time, 10. Rui Costa (POR/UAE) 3:19.