It was a second sprint in the second stage on the roads of Poland.
Matteo Pelucchi won the sprint in the second fraction of the Tour de Pologne, from Czestochowa to Dabrowa Gornicza for 146 km.
The Italian rider from team IAM Cycling beat yesterday’s winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin), who held on to the yellow Skandia jersey as the leader, and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing). Unfortunately the sprint was marred by a maxi spill about 400 metres from the arrival, which involved a large part of the pack.
This is Pelucchi’s eighth career win and the second one in a World Tour race, after the stage he won at the Tirreno-Adriatico in 2014.
“It was a very fast, very confusing bunch sprint; we were all super close and there was a fall just several metres from the arrival. I managed to find some room to the left at just the right time and so I managed to come in ahead of Kittel. I’m happy to have won in Poland; there is a fantastic atmosphere here. I dedicate this victory to my team and in particular to our main sponsor, to celebrate their 20th anniversary,” says Matteo Pelucchi.
“I wanted to win today and I think I was still the fastest in the sprint finish but I had to avoid the crash on my right. They fell into my front wheel, so that took a few seconds where I couldn’t accelerate, then as soon as I could start my sprint again Pelucchi came from the left into my handlebars and that took again a second where I couldn’t push my pedals. In the end it wasn’t long enough anymore to pass him. I said to Pelucchi after the finish that he has to hold his line, it’s not ok to come so much to the right, but it’s ok, it’s a sprint, it’s full of emotions and also that crash happened, I was lucky to avoid it and I thought I could still go for the win. I think it was in my legs today. As a team we did it in a really good way, we could have been a bit more at the front in last 1.5km but that was not necessarily a problem, it was just very hectic and I guess that happens, that’s part of sprinting. Now I have to move on, we have to move on as a team, and we look to tomorrow” says Marcel Kittel.
The first guy to hit the pavement in the fall was Australian Caleb Ewan, who was caught up in the heat of the sprint and was inadvertently bumped by Sacha Modolo. The Australian slid to the ground, inevitably tangling up those giving chase in the pack. World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski also took a tumble, apparently without serious consequences.
After the start from Czestochowa the stage was immediately animated by a 4-rider break with Poles Kamil Gradek (Reprezetacja Polski) and Adrian Kurek (CCC Sprnadi Polkowice), the German Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Dutchman Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Belgian Sander Armee (Lotto-Soudal). The fugitives reached a maximum advantage of about 2 minutes. However, they were eventually caught by the chasing pack, which was spurred on by the team with the yellow jersey and the other sprinting teams, with about 12 km left until the arrival, during the second-to-last of five 10km laps on the final circuit in Dabrowa Gornicza.
In the other classifications Adrian Kurek keeps the Tauron cyclamen jersey for the mountain grand prix. Matteo Pelucchi took the white-red Lang Team jersey for the points’ classification and Kamil Gradek captured the blue Lotto jersey as the most active rider in the group. Team LottoNL-Jumbo continues leading the team classification.
Spain’s David De La Cruz (Etixx – Quick-Step) had to withdraw after a fall about 50 km away from the arrival.
Tomorrow is the third stage from Zawiercie to Katowice for 166 km, another chance for the sprinters.
Complete standings at:
http://tourdepologne.pl/
