The opening stage is one of the most important of the Tour de Pologne as it takes place in a circuit that includes a quite difficult climb in terms of the race. The riders will have to tackle 4 and a half laps to the cicuit that finishes in Jelenia Gora. The favorites for the race will have to be strong today in order not to lose the race. Last year the race was won by Vansummeren through a break in this first stage.
The break of the day was quite small, as only four riders made it into the group: Samuel Dumoulin (Euskaltel), Alexander Serebryakov (Katusha), Nick Nuyens (Garmin) and Yoann Offredo (Astana). They reached the intermediate sprint in Karpacz with a gap of 1' 30'' on Julien Simon, who was trying to bridge the gap, and 6 minutes over the main bunch. Dumoulin took the first place in the group and in the fight for the remaining points Andre Greipel took the points ahead of Michael Matthews and Tony Gallopin.
Julien Simon had reached the front group at the third climb of the Karpacz Orlinek. Samuel Dumoulin and him were the only ones fighting for the KoM points today. Meanwhile, with 60 kilometers remaining, the main bunch led by riders like Peter Stetina, George Hincapie and Roman Kreuziger is already starting to drop riders. If the pace is high the riders that will fight for the overall win could be greatly reduced after the first stage.
Samuel Dumoulin beat Julien Simon in the last KoM sprint and will wear the best climber jersey for the next few days, as the next days are all quite flat. With 21 kilometers to go, almost all of favorable slopes the early break still holds 1' 40'' on the main bunch. They have a good chance of making it to the end. On the peloton it is BMC giving it all to bring back the break but it is going to be a difficult task.
Julien Simon tried to go in the descent but his attempt was short lived. The one that managed to break away in the short hill after the descent was Yoann Offredo. The French from Astana opened a small gap of 15 seconds with 8 kilometers remaining. There have been a couple of attacks in the main bunch as well. A group of 6 riders including Philippe Gilbert, Dries Devenyns and Bauke Mollema is 1' 35'' behind Offredo while the main bunch is losing 2 minutes led by Geraint Thomas.
Giovanni Visconti is working at the group of Devenyns to hold the small 20 seconds gap they have over the bunch with 3 kilometers remaining but it is unlikely that they will catch Offredo. The French is a great rouleur and has opened the gap to his chasers. He has 40 seconds on the rest of the break, 1' 10'' over the Devenyns' group and 1' 30'' on the bunch.
Yoann Offredo enters the last kilometer at the same time as the break is caught by the chasing group. The French has 30 seconds on this group, so he is going to take the win and the leader's jersey. Bauke Mollema leads the sprint in the group ahead of Dries Devenyns, Alexander Serebryakov and Philippe Gilbert, while the main bunch keeps cutting the gap to the group.
Yoann Offredo wins in Jelenia Góra! Just as the last year the early break takes the win in the first stage of the Tour de Pologne. However, this will not be as relevant as last year as his chasers have been awarded the same time as Offredo. Astana was the only team yet to win this year and Offredo has done it in style. He was clearly the strongest in the break in the last kilometers and being such a good rouleur has allowed him to keep his gap.
Bauke Mollema won the sprint for the second place ahead of Philippe Gilbert, Samuel Dumoulin and Dries Devenyns. The Dutch took some very valuable bonus seconds that might give him an edge over the rest of the favorites as this is a race that could well be won in the bonus seconds.
The second stage is a marathon of 240 kilometers between the towns of Walbrzych and Opole. The stage is very flat, so the distance will be the only difficulty of the day. A mass sprint is expected and, given that most of the sprinters lost time yesterday, Yoann Offredo is still the favorite to keep the yellow jersey at the end of the day.
There was barely any fight for the break of the day today, given the length of the stage. The riders count in the break was only 3: Edvald Boasson Hagen (Garmin), Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar) and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Sky). All of them were far behind in the GC, so Astana did not doubt in letting them go. At the intermediate sprint in Paczkow, 153 km to go, they had a gap of 7 minutes over the main bunch. It was curious to see the yellow jersey, Offredo, take the first place in the sprint of the bunch ahead of Samuel Dumoulin and Alexander Serebryakov. However, no sprinters seemed to care for the points on offer.
Yoann Offredo sprinted and took the points again in the bunch in the second intermediate sprint in Prudnik (90 kilometers to go). The French took the sprint ahead of Samuel Dumoulin and keeps adding points to his tally while the main sprinters cannot bother to sprint. Meanwhile, the gap of the break had decreased but still was a comfortable 5 minutes.
The peloton imposed his strength and only Sebastian Langeveld remained ahead with 10 kilometers remaining. The Dutch had only 20 seconds over a bunch led by Radioshack, working for Greipel, Euskaltel, doing it for Kristoff, and Lotto, whose sprinter is Matthew Goss. It is clear that the mass sprint is going to be the way to go today.
The sprint trains were starting to take shape with 3 kilometers remaining. Lotto was clearly ahead as Jurgen Roelandts was preparing to lead Matthew Goss, while Mark Cavendish was right behind. Frank Schleck was going to work for Andre Greipel, clearly not the best of the abilities of the Luxembourgish. In Euskaltel Lloyd Mondory was working for Alexander Kristoff, who had Peter Sagan behind.
Lloyd Mondory did a terrific job to place Alexander Kristoff in the best position with slightly more than 1 kilometer to go. Euskaltel clearly had the strongest lead out for the Norwegian. On the other hand, Greipel had lost lots of places due to having Frank Schleck working for him. Among the other riders who are best positioned for the final sprint are Peter Sagan and Simone Ponzi.
Alexander Kristoff emerged from behind Mondory's wheel in the last 800 meters but he has a very real threat right behind him named Peter Sagan. It looks like the stage win is going to be for one of the two today. Behind them Lloyd Mondory is already dropping back and Simone Ponzi and Andre Greipel are progressing in the order of the sprint.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Opole! The Norwegian has proved again that the quality of the sprinters and finishers for Euskaltel is great this season by taking the 10th win for the team this year. Kristoff had to hold Peter Sagan behind right until the finish line as the Slovak seemed very keen on taking the stage win. The top 5 in the stage was completed by Andre Greipel, Matthew Goss and Denis Galimzyanov.
The 6 bonus seconds that Sagan collected today have moved him to the 2nd place in the GC, tied with Bauke Mollema. It will be interesting what Sagan can do, as he could potentially hold on with the best in the hilly stages of the Tour de Pologne. Meanwhile, the sprints by Offredo have paid off in the points competition as he is retaining the lead with a good margin.
The third stage is classified as flat but it is not as clear a mass sprint candidate as yesterday. The day will again be very tough for the riders as the length of today's stage is 202 kilometers. The climbing today will be a bit far from the finish line, with two climbs to Kubalonka, but the final circuit in the town of Cieszyn, next to the Czech Republic, is hard with the stage finishing at the top of a small hill.
The stage only had one intermediate sprint today, in Skoczow (100 kilometers to go). The break of the day was formed of 4 riders: Nick Nuyens (Garmin), Jerome Coppel (Ag2r), Juan Antonio Flecha (Movistar) and Jos van Emden (Saxo - Tinkoff). The Belgian was the only rider keen to take the bonus seconds and he put himself 6 seconds behind in the GC at that point. The main bunch reached the sprint 2' 30'' later. Matthew Goss led the sprint ahead of Andre Greipel and Yoann Offredo.
Astana is working to keep the distance to the break in a manageable gap but they eased the pace in the two climbs to Kubalonka not to wear down Yoann Offredo. At the second pass through the top (55 kilometers to go) the gap was still around 2' 30''. There was no fight in the peloton for KoM points but in the break Nuyens took a lot of points and will have the KoM jersey tomorrow.
Nick Nuyens had been already reeled back in at the first passage through the finish line in Cieszyn. Van Emden, Flecha and Coppel maintained 45 seconds on the main bunch, clearly not enough to survive 18 kilometers ahead. Meanwhile, Chris Horner attacked in the first passage through the hill of Kossak and dragged Simone Ponzi behind. However, they were quickly reeled back in.
Simone Ponzi could not go away but Rinaldo Nocentini could. The Italian attacked and left behind the riders from the break. He entered the last 5 kilometers with only 10 seconds on the peloton but at some point it looked like the Italian could have made it to the finish alone. Radioshack, Euskaltel and HTC made sure to lift the pace to catch. On the penultimate lap there was a crash involving Dries Devenyns and Geraint Thomas without further consequences.
Nocentini was caught before the final uphill sprint. A bit more than 1 kilometer to go Euskaltel as clearly ahead as Lloyd Mondory was again setting up the sprint for Alexander Kristoff, who again had Peter Sagan right behind. On Radioshack Frank Schleck again tried to pull Andre Greipel to the front but the team should really look for other options. Stefan van Dijk was the best placed among the rest of the sprinters and a surprising Yoann Offredo was trying to progress next to the fences in the right hand side of the road.
Lloyd Mondory was still first with 500 meters to go. The French did a great job of delivering Alexander Kristoff to the best position for the final sprint. The only threat to the Norwegian was, like yesterday, Peter Sagan. The Slovak has enjoyed no lead out but has been able to position himself perfectly in the two sprints. Behind the leading trio there is a small gap but Stefan van Dijk and Davide Rebellin are trying to close it.
Peter Sagan wins in Cieszyn! Sagan finally wins this season after a not too good spring. The final uphill was a bit too hard for Alexander Kristoff but only in the last few meters was Sagan able to get past him. The stage win will also give Sagan the leader's jersey thanks to the 10 bonus seconds. Sagan is a very dangerous rider for the hilly stages, as he is the best sprinter when going through the hills.
The Euskaltel lead out was really good and as a proof Lloyd Mondory was able to take the third place in the stage ahead of Andre Greipel and Enrico Gasparotto. Tomorrow a clearer mass sprint is expected ahead of the two hilly stages in the south of Poland.
The fourth stage between Bedzin and Katowice is already a tradition in the Tour de Pologne. However, the stage has no difficulties and is usually resolved in a mass sprint for the line. The stage finishes in a circuit in the streets in Katowice after only around 125 kilometers. Alexander Kristoff has proved that he is the sprinter in best shape in Poland, so probably he will be in the mix again.
The break of the day was formed really early and by the first intermediate sprint (94 kilometers to go) a group of 4 was already ahead: Jakob Fuglsang (Vacansoleil), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Garmin), Richie Porte (HTC) and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Ag2r). The Dane was the only rider interested in the bonus seconds, as he is only 16 seconds behind his teammate in the GC. In the sprint for the remaining points in the main group it was Matthew Goss ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Tony Gallopin.
The wind was the main difficulty of the stage, especially in the second part of the stage. However, no teams were willing to push things in the main bunch. The third intermediate sprint was placed 21 kilometers before the finish line and Matthew Goss, who was first in the bunch managed to sprint past two of the riders from the break before the sprint. Kristoff was 5th and Greipel 7th in the sprint. The only rider left at front was Jakob Fuglsang, who had taken 9 bonus seconds and gotten close in the GC.
Fuglsang was quickly reeled back in but a crash affecting Peter Sagan caused havoc in the main bunch in the last 5 kilometers. At least 20 riders were involved in the incident, leaving an already small peloton in just 60 units for the final sprint. With 3 kilometers remaining only Euskaltel had formed a sprint train with Lloyd Mondory leading Alexander Kristoff and Andre Greipel right behind. Matthew Goss seems to be the only other sprinter that is well positioned. As Sagan is losing time, it is difficult to predict who will be the leader after today's stage.
The Euskaltel riders look very good as the main bunch goes into the last kilometer. Lloyd Mondory has perfectly delivered Alexander Kristoff to the front of the group and they have even left Andre Greipel behind. It could be an easy win for the Spanish team. The last news is that Sagan is definitely way behind and losing more than 1 minute, so there will be a different leader after today's stage.
What looked like a straight win for Euskaltel looks very different with only 500 meter remaining. Alexander Kristoff was out of gas and he can't even get past Mondory. They are under serious attack by a bunch of other riders including Greg van Avermaet and Julien Simon. The outcome of the stage is very difficult to predict as lots of non sprinters are joining the party today.
Greg van Avermaet wins in Katowice! This has been a very strange win for the Belgian, his first of the season. Euskaltel seemed to have everything under control only to run out of strength in the last part of the sprint. A few riders appeared from behind including Van Avermaet and Van Leijen to take a 1-2 in the stage for Vacansoleil. The leader's jersey also goes from Sagan to Van Avermaet, so the Dutch team retains the lead.
Simone Ponzi, Julien Simon and Enrico Gasparotto completed the top 5 of the stage when the sprinters should have been dominating today. The strong wind, the havoc in the sprint due to the crash with 5 kilometers to go and the fight in the intermediate sprints surely played a role in the strange outcome. Three Vacansoleil riders are in the 4 first spots of the GC ahead of the decisive stages in the hills of the south of Poland.
The hills come back to the Tour de Pologne after three days for the sprinters. The fifth stage will feature the traditional circuit around the town of Zakopane. The route is not very hard but it will be enough to allow a smaller group of riders to fight for the stage win. The GC could also be a bit clearer after today's stage, at least by lowering the number of riders that are in the chase.
It was quite hard for the break of the day to take shape in the early kilometers of the stage. BMC and Radioshack did not like a group as big as the one that finally consolidated but had to give up after 30 kilometers. The group of 7 had in it Emanuele Sella (Astana), Lloyd Mondory (Euskaltel), Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar) and Geraint Thomas (HTC). At the climb of Wierch Olczanzki (97 kilometers to go) they had a gap of 6 minutes on the bunch. Nick Nuyens was also in the break. He easily took the KoM points to regain the first place in the classification.
Vacansoleil soon took the responsibility to chase, as some of the riders in the break were very close to Greg van Avermaet in the GC. At the first climb to Glodonka, the hardest climb in the final circuit, Carlos Barredo and Wilco Kelderman had cut the lead to 3' 20''. Their pace was already hard enough to leave behind some of the sprinters, who were keen on having an easier day. The rider count in the peloton was 75 at this point.
The main bunch maintained a good pace in the remainder of the lap and by the time they hit Glodowka again (23 kilometers to go) only Sella, Mondory, Serebryakov and Firsanov survived from the original group. They had 25 seconds over the main group, where Rui Costa and Julien Simon attacked at the top of the climb. They were soon followed by Cadel Evans.
The attack at the top of the Glodowka did not work but another group soon took shape including Bjorn Leukemans, Lloyd Mondory and Enrico Gasparotto. However, they would also be reeled back in at the last difficulty of the stage, Droga do Olczy (6 kilometers to go). As soon as they were caught it was the turn of Simone Ponzi to try and open a gap. He went through the KoM banner 10 seconds ahead of the main group, where Roman Kreuziger was controlling the pace.
Again, Ponzi was unlucky or was not strong enough but the subsequent attack by Simon Gerrans was much more serious. The Australian entered the last 3 kilometers of the stage with a gap of 15 seconds over another Katusha, Rinaldo Nocentini, and 20 seconds over a group of 29 riders. Joost van Leijen was trying to order the group a little bit as a few seconds on Gerrans' side would be enough to take the leaders' jersey from Van Avermaet.
Simon Gerrans enters the last kilometer with enough time to celebrate, as his gap is around 10 seconds over Nocentini and still 20 seconds on the group of favorites. Only 22 riders remain in that group as the final sprint is starting for the third place in the stage. The group of the favorites is led by Philippe Gilbert ahead of Simone Ponzi, Bjorn Leukemans and Dries Devenyns. If the raw speed is the determining factor it looks like Ponzi will easily take the third.
Simon Gerrans wins in Zakopane! It is surely the least important of the wins by the Australian this season but it marks his third win so far. Much was said about Gerrans difficulty to convert good performances into wins in the past, but he is determined to make that criticism a thing of the past. Today's win will not give him the yellow jersey though, as no time differences were awarded between him and the group.
Rinaldo Nocentini did not have to make much of an effort to take the second place, while his teammate Simone Ponzi won the sprint in the group to be third. The top 5 in the stage was completed by Davide Rebellin and Bauke Mollema. Tomorrow's stage will be very interesting to see, as Van Avermaet and Gerrans are on the same time and as many as 33 riders are still within 10 seconds of the leader.
Stage 6: Bukovina Terma Hotel Spa - Bukowina Tatrzanska
The penultimate stage in Poland is the hardest of the race. The riders will have to complete 5 laps to a 40 kilometers long circuit including three climbs. The day will be a continuous up and down for the riders, in a route that resembles an Ardennes classic with slightly longer climbs. The finish itself is place halfway through the easiest of the three. This is a very important stage and it is very possible that the GC has a major revamp.
The break of the day had 6 riders, including Michael Mathhews (Garmin), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel), Julien Simon (Ag2r) and Denis Galimzyanov (Movistar). It could have been a good day for a break, but a couple of them were too close in the GC and Vacansoleil had everything under control halfway through the stage. The gap was only 3' 10'' at that point. At 89 kilometers to the finish line and, considering the amount of KoM points available today, Julien Simon is very close to overtaking Nick Nuyens in that classification.
It was going to be a harder day than expected for the riders as BMC decided to give it a go and Peter Stetina attacked with 50 kilometers to go. The American soon joined the break but Radioshack was not very keen on leaving a gap to the Paris - Nice winner and the gap was down to 25 seconds as they started the last lap. Most of the work was done by Frank Schleck and Roman Kreuziger, who had already left the peloton in 60 riders.
The break was reeled back in soon enough but that triggered quite a few attacks. Igor Anton was the only rider to be able to open a considerable gap in the first climb of the circuit and had 35 seconds on the group at the top. Frank Schleck was driving the main bunch and had to reel back another group including Daniel Martin, Peter Stetina and Matthias Frank.
Radioshack goes full attack with Philippe Gilbert in the second climb of the circuit. It was a very hard attack by the Belgian, who easily catches Igor Anton halfway through the climb (12 kilometers to the finish line). A reaction by the rest of the favorites does not take long, a group of 7 including Dries Devenyns, Bjorn Leukemans and Davide Rebellin is losing 20 seconds; another group of 4 including Simon Gerrans is 45 seconds behind. Meanwhile, the peloton is already 1' 20'' behind and Greg van Avermaet is suffering. It looks like the Vacansoleil rider will not keep yellow jersey after today's stage.
A group of 12 riders got together at the top of the climb, with only 9 kilometers remaining. It looks like this could be the group that plays it for the stage and the GC win, although there is a small group of 3 trying to make it to this group. Van Avermaet is at this point completely out of the mix. The ones that have a few bonus seconds in the group are Simon Gerrans, Philippe Gilbert and Rinaldo Nocentini.
Dries Devenyns drives the front group to the start of the uphill 2 kilometers finish ahead of Simon Gerrans. Jurgen van den Broeck and Miguel Rubiano seem to be suffering at the bottom of the group, so it looks like 2 less candidates for the win in Bukowina Tatrzanska. The group of 3 riders that were behind, Rui Costa, Joost van Leijen and Enrico Gasparotto, are 35 seconds behind and will not make it to the front.
Simon Gerrans is the first to attack in the final climb. He is the virtual leader and enters the last kilometer of the stage with a small 6 seconds gap over his chasers. Dries Devenyns is leading the chase followed by Davide Rebellin, Cadel Evans and Oliver Zaugg. If no gaps appear at the finish the bonus seconds will be very important but with Gerrans already ahead he has a great chance of taking the yellow jersey today.
Philippe Gilbert wins in Bukowina Tatrzanska! The Belgian had an amazing response once Simon Gerrans was clear of the group and the two Radioshack riders shared the profits at the finish line. Gilbert takes the stage and Gerrans grabs the leader's jersey ahead of the easy final stage. It is the first win of the year by Gilbert, who already deserved it after having been a great help for Gerrans in the Ardennes. The whole Radioshack team was on fire today.
The rest of the group lost 13 seconds at the finish line, as no one was able to chase. Rinaldo Nocentini took the third place in the stage, which gives him the third position overall, followed by Dries Devenyns and Tiago Machado. In terms of the KoM classification as expected Julien Simon is going to take the overall win after collecting an outstanding 108 points today.
The presentation of next season's calendar took place in Poland this year, just before the start of the last stage of the Tour of Poland. The calendar keeps expanding and there will be a few more races next season. Most notably, the World Championships will be extended to include the TTT and ITT races along with the traditional Road race. They will be held in Richmond, USA. There will also be a two "sort of" national championships but as there are not too many riders in this story they will only be divided in a European Championship and a Rest of the World Championship. The winners of those races will have the chance to wear their national champion shirts for the season.
The "Rest of the World" Champioships will probably be a bit weird because the number of riders will be around 40... Surely the AI will mess everything up
The Tour de Pologne finishes today with a stage that can almost be considered a Criterium in the city of Krakow. The riders will have to race 130 kilometers before what surely be a mass sprint for the line. However, there are still a few things to be settled. The GC is very close and any incident could make a rider drop outside of the top 10. The points' jersey will also have to be decided on today's stage.
The break of the day did not settle in front until at least 40 kilometers had been raced. A group of only 4 riders was allowed to go: Robbie McEwen (Astana), Jakob Fuglsang (Vacansoleil), Andrew Talansky (HTC) and Matthias Frank (Garmin). Halfway through the stage the riders had already entered the final circuit and their gap with the main bunch was 5 minutes. Euskaltel, Radioshack and Lotto are controlling the pace in the bunch.
The second intermediate sprint was placed 26 kilometers from the finish line in Krakow, with 2 laps remaining in the race. Andre Greipel easily took the available points for the main bunch ahead of Matthew Goss and Alexander Kristoff. However, Simone Ponzi was still ahead in the points classification 4 points ahead of the Norwegian. The gap of the break was still 1' 30'' but it looked controlled by the pack.
Fabian Cancellara gives a powerful relay in the front of the bunch with 10 kilometers remaining that is enough to reel back in the break. There is slightly less than 1 lap remaining and the stage looks ready to be settled in a bunch sprint. There has been quite a strong wind in the stage, could that give us some sort of surprise result like in Katowice?
There were two dominant trains again for the mass sprint, Euskatel's and Radioshack's. The Spaniard team was slightly ahead with 3 kilometers remaining and as usual Lloyd Mondory was going to set up the sprint for Alexander Kristoff. The Norwegian had Michael Matthews right behind. On the left side of the road it would be Frank Schleck working for Andre Greipel, who really must be missing Daniele Bennati. Simone Ponzi was behind the German, while other good sprinters like Matthew Goss and Tony Gallopin were also well positioned.
Lloyd Mondory did a terrific job again to deliver Alexander Kristoff to the best position ahead of the sprint. With 1 kilometer remaining only Michael Matthews was remotely close to the Euskaltel riders. On the other hand, Frank Schleck again was too weak to set up a sprint and it will be a miracle if his teammate Andre Greipel wins today. Worse than that, the Luxembourgish has slowed down virtually every other relevant sprinter.
Alexander Kristoff takes off and with 500 meters to go it looks like he is going to be the winner of the last stage of the Tour de Pologne. Michael Matthews is dropping back after having trouble to follow Euskaltel's train and the riders that seem to be progressing are Simone Ponzi and Andre Greipel. Ponzi is trying to protect his leading position in the points' jersey but if Kristoff wins today there will be nothing he can do to retain it.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Krakow! This has been a dominant victory by the Norwegian, who takes his third win of the season and the 11th for the Euskaltel team. They are only 2 wins away from BMC now. The Norwegian will also take the points' jersey. The second position of the stage was much closer as Andre Greipel beat Simone Ponzi over the finish line. They both overtook Lloyd Mondory with just 100 meters to go. Matthew Goss completed the top 5 of the stage.
The GC did not suffer any changes and Simon Gerrans took the overall win in Poland ahead of his teammate Philippe Gilbert. This result will give the Radioshack riders a lot of confidence ahead of the hilly classics of the end of the season and the World Championships. The podium was completed by Rinaldo Nocentini, rounding Katusha's good performance in Poland.
, Where is he on the GC now 
