Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) has re-emphasised the fact that he is the rider to beat in the Tour de Pologne, the Tour of Poland, with his second straight win in the fifth stage in Zakopane. The Slovakian all-rounder pounced on a surprise attack from Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) in the last few hundred metres; Sagan caught the French sprinter as he faded into the finishing straight to win by a clear margin over the rest.
Australian sprinter Michael Matthews (Rabobank) was the best of the rest, just behind Sagan, ahead of Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo) and Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM).
“I’m very happy that I won today’s difficult stage; it was much harder than yesterday’s and I really have to thank my team mates, who pulled for me all day,” said Sagan. “The finish was anything but easy and also in the last kilometres there were a series of attacks that were difficult to control.
“Without a strong team it would have been impossible to win,” he added.
Just over 20km into the 201km stage, run over five laps of a 40.3km circuit, Miguel Minguez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar), Ruslan Pidgornyy (Vacansoleil-DCM), Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Mateusz Taciak (CCC Polsat) escaped. The five riders managed to build a maximum lead of six minutes but split up on the hilly parcours until only Pidgornyy remained with 100km still to go.
With just over 40km to go, with the race approaching the final lap, and with Pidgornyy little more than a minute ahead, the Lampre-ISD team began to lift the pace on the second category climb to Olczy. The move was obviously rehearsed, as blue-fuchsia pair Diego Ulissi and Simon Spilak accelerated off the front, followed by Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and set off in pursuit of the lone Ukrainian.
The three riders caught Pidgornyy with 41km to go, just before they crossed the finish line to start the final lap; as they took the bell, the four riders were just forty seconds ahead, and the gap was reducing steadily. Midway through the lap Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) attacked across as the peloton got closer and went straight over the top.
On the final 1st category climb to Głodówka though, Team Sky and Sagan’s Liquigas-Cannondale team pulled back all of the breakaway riders, stringing the peloton out behind them. Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Polsat Polkowice) pulled clear on he descent with 20km to go, but he was not allowed to get far, as Sagan’s men were in no mood to allow for any more breaks.
Movistar took over the pace with just over 6km to go, as a sprint was looking inevitable; Team Sky took over into the final kilometre but, suddenly, Feillu burst from the pack and opened up a wide gap over the rest of the sprinters.
Sagan was quickly on to the Frenchman though and steadily chased him down; the Slovak caught and passed Feillu as he began to fade in the final hundred metres to take the victory well clear of the rest.
Sagan’s second straight stage victory reinforces his lead in the overall classification. He now leads Marcato by 15 seconds, with Feillu 17 seconds back in third place, ahead of the Queen stage between Bukovina and Bukowina Tatrzańska.
“Tomorrow’s stage is really hard, there are more that 4,000 metres of altitude change!” explained Sagan. “I’m definitely not a climber but I’m going to try and hang in there. Then I’m going to give it my all at the finish and we’ll see how it goes.
“I have to try,” he added. “I can’t miss this chance.”