After allegedly being threatened out of the break Thursday, Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) won the sixth stage of the Tour of Poland on Friday as he outsprinted Christophe Riblon (AG2R) on the summit finish.

Atapuma was visibly content to sit on Riblon’s wheel inside the last 2 kilometres of the 192km stage. With barely a few hundred metres remaining, Atapuma blasted past Riblon who was exhausted after having bridged a gap to Atapuma and Cherneskyi (Katusha) on the final slope.

There was some consolation for Riblon, however, since he is the new race leader going into Saturday’s finale. He relieved Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi) of the yellow jersey to open up a 19 seconds lead. Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) is third in the GC, 20 seconds behind Riblon.

A series of breakaways were created in the opening half of the race. At the 60 km mark a large breakaway group of 26 riders was established.

Fast forward fifteen kilometres, though, and the tough ascents began taking their toll on the group, which was reduced to nine. At the start of the last of five laps with 38.4km remaining, an eight-man group found itself ahead of the main field.

Five men attacked the peloton early in the final lap, bumping the lead pack to 13.

The attacks were unrelenting as the leaders made their way over the two climbs during the final round.

In the end Atapuma broke clear only to be joined by Riblon and it soon became evident that these two would decide the stage between them.

The Tour de Pologne ends with a 37km time trial into Krakow on Saturday.

Stage 6 result:
1. Darwin Atapuma Hurtado (Col) Colombia    5:19:36
2. Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 02”
3. Leopold Konig (Cze) Team NetApp-Endura 22”
4. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 22”
5. Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 22”
6. Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge 22”
7. Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 22”
8. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling 22”
9. Ivan Santaromita (Ita) BMC Racing Team 22”
10. Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Lampre-Merida 22”

General classification:
1. Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale    31:09:20
2. Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi    0:00:19”
3. Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff    0:00:20”
4. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling    0:00:242
5. Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge    0:00:27”
6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale    0:00:33”
7. Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar Team    0:00:33”
8. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) RadioShack Leopard    0:00:36”
9. Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling    0:00:40”
10. Alex Howes (USA) Garmin-Sharp 0:01:08”