"We wanted to try to stay together and make the ride difficult."

Those were the words of Astana's Andrey Zeits after stage four at the Tour de Pologne. Zeits and his teammates led a long chase of a 3-man breakaway as a test of their physical preparations following a 2-week altitude camp in Italy ahead of the Vuelta a Espãna at the end of the month.

Astana's work greatly reduced the gap to the breakaway ahead of a circuit finish in a light rain. Poland's Maciej Bodnar won stage four ahead of compatriot Kamil Zielinski, who is the new race leader at the Tour de Pologne.

Astana Pro Team rider Alexey Lutsenko finished among the leaders on Wednesday and is now tenth in the overall classification ahead tomorrow 's first mountain stage into Zakopane.