Having just finished his first ever altitude training camp, Warren Barguil proved that he has benefited from his new training when he finished fifth in the first mountain stage of the Tour de Pologne. His teammate, sprinter Nikias Arndt, showed great form by finishing just one minute beind the best in the tough mountain test.

Warren Barguil has raced to fifth place on the fifth stage of the Tour of Poland at the end of the first mountain top finish of the race. Barguil, Georg Preidler and Tobias Ludvigsson were part of the front group in the final stages of the day and at the end Barguil came from a long way back to power through in the sprint and take fifth.

Earlier in the stage the team went on the front foot with firstly Barguil following the moves on the final KOM of the day to take third, after which Johannes Fröhlinger made a move with one other. In the end though everything was to come back together for the final ascent to the line where Rafal Majka (Tinkoff Saxo) proved fastest to the line. Prediler came across the line in 27th position, 13 seconds down on the stage winner.

The fifth stage saw a breakaway of eight riders establish itself out front while Team Giant-Shimano concentrated their efforts on staying out of trouble in the peloton and riding as a team near the front of the bunch.

The eight leaders never gained more that 3′ and with under 50km to go they were close enough for a group to jump across, making it 14 out front. This did not last long though and as the final climb approached the break thinned down to just one.

The team were attentive in following moves and riding together near the front on the approach to the climb. Nikias Arndt pulled out a strong final ascent, only losing contact in the final kilometre, while up front Barguil was the first rider from the team home as small gaps appeared in what was left of the front group over the line.

“The team were strong today, we still had four guys there with 1km to go which is good to see,” said Team Giant-Shimano coach Addy Engels. “We were focused on the final climb today and after studying the finish before we saw that it wasn’t too steep so said to Nikias to go for it as well, without any pressure.

“He did a strong ride to stay in the front group until 800m to go. Then after that we had Tobias, Georg and Warren in front. Warren was really strong today and showed today that he has reacted well to the altitude training in the past few weeks with the team.

“Tomorrow will be really hard – it’s a circuit with a lot of climbing and will be tough. We will ride to stay in front and Warren showed today that he is riding well and is capable of another stage result.”