João Almeida leads the Tour de Pologne general classification ©Getty Images

Portuguese rider João Almeida's late attack on stage two of the Tour de Pologne paid off, as he withstood a late challenge from Italian Diego Ulissi of UAE Team Emirates to cross the line first in Przemyśl in Poland.

The Deceuninck-QuickStep cyclist completed the 200.8-kilometre route from Zamość in four hours 41min 33sec, with Ulissi and Slovenian Matej Mohorič of Bahrain Victorious on the same time.

Almeida made a late attack with just 1.3km to go on the uphill to the line, but the Italian narrowed the gap in the closing stages.

Despite the chase, Almeida had enough strength to hold on to the stage win.

Almeida's stage win means he now leads the general classification, four seconds ahead of Mohorič and Ulissi.

Finishing behind the trio, four seconds adrift, was home favourite Michał Kwiatkowski of Ineos Grenadiers.

Danish rider Mikkel Frølich Honoré of Deceuninck-QuickStep was fifth, another four seconds back, before Italian Lorenzo Rota of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux led a small group in at 12 seconds off the winner.

Australian Jai Hindley of Team DSM, Italy's Giovanni Aleotti of Bora-Hansgrohe and Belgians Dylan Teuns and Tim Wellens of Bahrain Victorious and Lotto-Soudal respectively completed the top 10.

The third of seven stages is set to take place tomorrow, covering a 226.4km route from Sanok to Rzeszów.