Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-QuickStep) continued his rise through the sprinting ranks by claiming his second win on the WorldTour on stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne. After an excellent lead-out from his teammates, he launched a long sprint and narrowly held off Elia Viviani (Sky) and Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) in a photo finish to take both the victory and the overall lead.

 

We have gathered several reactions.

 

Gear choice pays off for Fernando Gaviria in fast Polish sprint

Fernando Gaviria's road to Rio de Janeiro, where he hopes to capture a gold medal on the track, passes through Poland, where the 21-year-old scored a thrilling win at the end of a stage controlled by his Etixx – Quick-Step teammates. But long before Gaviria dashed to the line in Katowice, it was another of the squad's riders, Bob Jungels, who came into the spotlight by putting in a rapid acceleration and making it into the day's first break, where he was joined by other nine riders.

 

However, that move didn't stick, so shortly after another group, this time counting five men, took off. The quintet – Marcel Aregger (IAM Cycling), Artur Detko (Poland), Jonas Koch (Verva ActiveJet), Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev (Astana) and Lukasz Owsian (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) established a maximum lead of three minutes, which began to melt once they entered the local circuit in Katowice. There, the fast and furious chasers didn't give them a chance and reeled in the five, making sure stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne will end up in a bunch sprint.

 

Giro d'Italia white jersey Bob Jungels took command of affairs, stringing out the peloton and paving the way for this teammates. The Etixx – Quick-Step lead-out train hit the front and made sure of bringing Fernando Gaviria in an excellent position before the final 300 meters. General classification leader Davide Martinelli escorted the Colombian, who made use of his incredible turn of speed and held at bay Caleb Ewan and Elia Viviani, claiming his fourth victory of the season, one which catapulted him to first place in the overall.

 

"It wasn't an easy stage, and the finale was really complicated, because we had a headwind and a downhill sprint. Before the stage, I talked with the team and decided to use a 54 chainring, which was the best solution for such a sprint. On the circuit, everybody wanted to be at the front, so thing became really stressful", said Gaviria, who now has won stages at the Tour de San Luis, Tour La Provence, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Pologne since turning pro.

 

Besides the general classification – where he is joined on the podium by stage 1 winner Davide Martinelli – the 21-year-old is also leading the points rankings and is determined to try and fight for other strong results in the next flat stages, before returning the service to his teammates:

 

"The guys were great, keeping me out of trouble and doing a flawless job today. We are very happy with this victory, which is of the entire team. In the Tour de Suisse I wasn't at 100%, but worked hard after the race and now things came together. We will see what the other stages for sprinters will bring, we are motivated to be again among the protagonists, before we will go into the harder part of the race, where I will try to repay my teammates for their important help.”

 

“The final on this circuit was very difficult and complicated. It was a incredible sprint; we were going really fast; in fact, I managed to win by a matter of centimetres over Viviani and Ewan,” declared Gaviria, who reached a maximum speed of 75.4 km/h in the final sprint. ”The team raced very well, we knew there would be a breakaway group but we couldn’t let them get too far ahead of us. In fact, the pack kept the attackers in check.

 

” Tomorrow I will try to defend the yellow jersey, but I know that in the days to come there are going to be some difficult stages. In the meantime we’re enjoying this second team victory, the second team jersey here at the Tour de Pologne. It’s a team victory because all my team mates raced very well to put me in the best conditions to go for a great final sprint.” 

 

Elia Viviani agonizingly close to victory in Poland

Elia Viviani bounced back to sprint to a strong second place on day two at the Tour of Poland.

 

The Italian was back in the mix after a crash 24 hours earlier and came from deep in the pack with a huge turn of speed, narrowly missing out on the victory in a three-way photo finish.

 

Fernando Gaviria (Etixx - Quick-Step) launched his acceleration early and just held on at the line in Katowice, with Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) third over the stripe.

 

Team Sky moved up as a unit on the final lap of the circuit, with late work from Salvatore Puccio and Michal Kwiatkowski helping to bring Viviani to the fore.

 

Despite it appearing his path was blocked the Italian used his track legs to star on another day for the sprinters.

 

Kwiatkowski remains inside the top 10 in eighth overall, 16 bonus seconds back on new leader Gaviria. Leopold Konig and Michal Golas also sit on the same time as their teammate ahead of more selective stages to come.

 

Orica-BikeExchange: The race is not over for Ewan

Sprint star Caleb Ewan finished in third place again today at the Tour of Poland, after a tight sprint finish concluded proceeding for stage two.

 

Despite a fantastic lead out from his Orica-BikeExchange team-mates, working well together in the final 10kilometres to keep the 22-year-old in good position, it came down to a just a few centimetres separating the top three.

 

Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-Quickstep) managed to edge out Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Ewan to claim the stage victory and move into the overall lead.

 

"We probably hit the front a little earlier than we needed to today," explained sport director Dave McPartland after the stage. "But that was our plan today, to take the race on at the front in the final kilometres and keep Caleb in good position and the boys certainly did that well.

 

"Luka Mezgec dropped Caleb off at the top of the climb around one kilometre to go onto the wheel of Etixx-Quickstep who still had a few riders left.

 

“It was the perfect position for Caleb and he had a good run at the line. It could have gone either way, it was very, very close in the end.

 

”The whole team were super motivated after yesterday's stage, and they really wanted to try and nail the finish today and we had another really good crack at it.

 

“We still have another two days where there is a possibility for a sprint, so it's certainly not over yet for Caleb."

 

Kristian Sbaragli shows his potential in fast Polish sprint

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were part of the early action with Adrien Niyonshuti and Youcef Reguigui following all the early attacks. Regugui was able to join a 10 rider breakaway attempt but the Algerian’s group was soon chased down before their lead could even reach the 40 second mark.

 

Reguigui and Kristian Sbaragli were again our two riders up there in the thick of the action and Sbaragli found the wheel of Viviani with around 8km to go. The Italian would later lose his favoured position but be remaining calm and staying strong in a few shoulder to shoulder encounters, Sbaragli came onto the wheel of Gaviria in the final few meters. The Colombian was able to take the victory, winning with a superior lunge for the line over Viviani and Ewan. Sbaragli was hot on the trio’s heels though to finish in a solid 4th place.

 

Kristian Sbaragli said:

 

“The race was quite fast once again and in the final I felt I had pretty good legs. The team were good, riding alongside me as much as possible today too. I was a bit far back with 1km to go but luckily I found some space and in the end I could sprint. I am looking forward to the next sprints where there could possibly be more of selection before the finale.”

 

Moreno Hofland: This fastsprint was not ideal for me

Moreno Hofland finished fifth again in the second stage of the Tour de Pologne today. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s sprinter finished behind winner Fernando Gaviria (Etixx - Quick Step) in the slightly downhill finish.

 

“It was a fast sprint, downhill,” Moreno Hofland said. “That makes timing and taking the right place very important. I was in the right place, but everything has to come together when you want to win a sprint like this. I don’t think it went bad today. Especially when you know that this is not exactly my terrain. I prefer the sprints when you need a lot of power. We did a good job with the team. Dennis van Winden and Tom Leezer brought me to the front. I feel like we made the most of it.”

 

Addy Engels agreed with his sprinter.

 

“This isn’t Moreno’s specialty,” the Sports Director added. “But the whole team dealt with it very well. Tom Leezer was the last man today and Moreno had to finish it off afterwards. He was in a good position, but I have to say that a sprint like this is quite a lottery.”

 

Thursday might give Hofland a bigger chance with the long third stage and tough final part.

 

“Moreno normally has fewer problems with a profile like that than the average sprinter,” Engels concluded. “He might survive it, but it depends on how hard the race is going to be made by the overall contenders, as well.”

 

Mechanical costly for Niccolo Bonifazio in Poland

While the crosswinds wreaked havoc and stole a showdown between sprinters in the Tour de France Wednesday, the Tour of Poland's stage two ended in traditional style.

 

A five-man breakaway was caught in the final kilometers of the 153-kilometer race, and the fastmen sparred to the line where a photo finish determined the top three. Niccolo Bonifazio finished just behind in 6th place, not the result the young Italian sprinter was gunning for.

 

"In the sprint, the guys were super again," said Bonifazio. "The last kilometer was tricky; I was boxed in and lost some speed, and at 400 meters restarted, but it was too late.

 

”It was a super-fast start. Unfortunately, I hit a pothole hard and afterward my shifting was off. I had to switch to the spare bike, and it was difficult to get back, and I lost some valuable energy there. I am disappointed. I wanted to pay back the team with a better result as they worked hard for me in the finale."

 

Fernando Gaviria (Etixx- Quick Step) eked out a narrow victory and claimed the leader's jersey.  With the peloton all finishing in the same time for the second straight day, the GC battle has yet to begin, but tomorrow's long 240-kilometer stage will taste a few hills in the latter part and may change that scenario.

 

"It was a fast start, the peloton did 51km/h in the first hour," echoed director Dirk Demol. "At a certain moment there was a good breakaway of 10 riders that Marco Coledan was in, but there were also some GC riders like Jungels and Kwiatkowski, so they didn't let it go. It was a long chase to get them back, though.

 

"Later a breakaway of five riders made it to the final lap, and as expected it was a bunch sprint. The boys did well again to bring Niccolo into the right position. He's there, but he missed a little bit to be a contender for the win. Not much more to say – we tried, and tomorrow we try again."

 

IAM youngster on the attack, Matteo Pelucchi misses out

IAM had Marcel Aregger in the break

 

“Too bad it wasn’t enough to get the mountains jersey,” hs aid

 

Aregger, who comes from Zug in Switzerland, was part of a five man lead group that was allowed to take some time ahead of the peloton after about a third of the stage had been raced during this 2nd stage of the Tour of Poland.

 

“On the first climb I was a bit blocked, and was only able to sprint for second. The second categorized climb I was able to win,” Aregger commented after his stage.

 

At the end of the day, four of the riders finished with the same number of points, but since Aregger had finished the stage with a bit of a time gap, he was not allowed to take possession of the jersey for the best climber.

 

Eddy Seigneur, who along with Thierry Marichal is acting as the directeur sportif for the IAM Cycling team, took stock of the team’s day.

 

“We were present in the break at the front for most of the day with Marcel. In the final we were a bit unlucky with Matteo Pelucchi. He suffered a flat tire with 25 kilometers to go to the finish. He was able to rejoin the field, but he had to spend too much energy in order to hope to play legitimately for the win. So in the sprint, we went with Heinrich Haussler, who succeeded in taking a top-10 result.”

 

The third stage will cover more than 240 kilometers from Zawiercie to Nowy Sacz.

 

“Yesterday I had a little bit of trouble, but today everything went quite well,” Marcel Aregger explained. He suffered a broken ankle in a training accident in May. “I’ll keep the mountains classification in mind as something to shoot for so long as I have a chance.”

 

Nikias Arndt: My sprint was too long

After the team had put him in the right position arriving at the final corner, Nikias Arndt eventually finished in 8th place as Fernando Gaviria (Etixx- Quick Step) was the strongest to take the victory.

 

In the overall classification, Arndt is now in 6th position, 16″ behind Gaviria.

 

Nikias Arndt said: “Today was a really fast and hard finale. We managed to come in a good way to the front ahead of the sprint finish. Then Koen [De Kort]had to go a long way and dropped me with 300m to the finish and we missed one extra guy, so the sprint was a bit too long for me. However we can still be proud on how we rode today again.”

 

Coach Morten Bennekou added: “We decided to go to the front in the sprint at the very last moment because of the technical finale. It turned out to be a good decision as it was a downhill finish. Koen then made a strong lead out for Nikias who opened after that the sprint a little bit too early. Once again the team did a good and dedicated race and with a few more adjustments, we could have made a top 5.”

 

No top 10 for ONE Pro Cycling in Polish sprint

ONE Pro Cycling were looking to set up Chris Opie for the sprint, with 5 of his team mates getting themselves into position to deliver their sprinter to the line. Working well together the squad pressed on and dropped Opie off in the mix of sprinters with 1km to go. Hitting speeds at over 60kph, Opie was sprinting well inside the top 10, only fading meters from the line to finish in 13th position.

 

Philippe Gilbert stays safe on fast day in Poland

Floris Gerts was the first BMC Racing Team rider to cross the line, finishing in 14th place. The rest of the squad finished safely with the main bunch and Philippe Gilbert heads into tomorrow’s stage tenth on the General Classification, 16 seconds behind new race leader, Gaviria Rendon.

 

Sports director  Max Sciandri said: “It was a pretty fast start today and with the first intermediate sprint at around 40km, I think there were a lot of people aiming for that to getting extra bonuses.

 

“Just a little bit before the sprint we had Danilo [Wyss] in a good break with six riders and then Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) bridged across so it became a little dangerous and was caught just before the sprint.

 

“A break was then able to go off the front and we were happy with that. For us it was about staying safe and making sure there were no time gaps at the line so it all played out pretty well for us in that respect.”

 

VERVA ActiveJet German takes sprints jersey in Poland

Jonas Koch took over the lead in the most active rider competition of the Tour de Pologne. Riding in the colors of VERVA ActiveJet Team, he won two sprints and a special sprint on the route of the second stage. 

 

”It was an amazing stage. Despite the fact that I rode hard on the first stage, it felt good today. It tookmore than 40 kilometers before we could get away. I had no problems beating the rivals in the sprints and I am happy with this jersey. I want to maintain it until the end of the race,” said Koch.

 

“I’m very happy, I’ve gotten off to a strong start at this Tour de Pologne; both yesterday and today I managed to get into the right break. I spent a lot of energy but this blue jersey is the reward for me and my team, for the effort we put in. We will try to defend it as long as possible; it certainly won’t be an easy task."

 

Movistar stay safe in Poland

Far from the gusty winds hitting the Movistar Team in France, stage two of the Tour de Pologne (153km between Tarnowskie Góry and Katowice) had the Jaimerena / Laguía-led Movistar team riding under perfect conditions - 24 degrees, no sight of crosswinds - which made for calm racing until the final bunch kick. It wasn't until 60km in when the five-man breakaway was made - Kozhatayev (AST), Aregger (IAM), Kock (VAT), Owsian (CCC) and Detko (PL)-, the Movistar Team well covered behind by Sutherland and Ventoso to avoid any problems.

 

The organising team led by Czeslaw Lang brought another beautiful urban course in Katowice for today's finale, next to rivers Klodnica and Rawa, where the escapees were neutralized with 20km to go before the usual charge started for the sprinters -only Marcel Aregger (IAM) tried to avoid it - and the leadout riders like Alex Dowsett, always keeping the Blues safe. The day's win went to Colombian Fernando Gaviria (EQS) -just ahead of  Elia Viviani (SKY) - which granted him the yellow jersey from the shoulders of team-mate Davide Martinelli. Thursday will see racing stay in southern turf with a very long one: 240km between and Nowy Sącz with a handful of little climbs in the second part of the race.

 

Tinkoff looking forward to hillier days in Poland

The second stage of the Tour of Poland rolled out in very much the same fashion as the previous day, with a bunch sprint deciding the stage, and Juraj Sagan first over the line for Tinkoff in 28th position

 

With little interest in the breakaway again today, knowing it was a day for the sprinters, the Tinkoff riders spent the stage looking after Jesper Hansen ahead of tomorrow’s first GC test.

 

After the stage, Sport Director Jan Valach explained how the race unfolded for the team.

 

“Today our plan was to push for the break if there were 10 or more riders there, but this didn’t happen so we saved energy and protected Jesper as much as we could ahead of the fast finishing kilometres.

 

“We don’t have a pure sprinter here to contest with the guys at the front, Juraj is fast and of course so is Daniele [Bennati] but it is his first race back so he’s growing into the race. So we didn’t have an opportunity today but tomorrow will be different.”

 

Tomorrow’s stage is the longest of the whole race at 240km with a lot of ups and downs before the day’s classified climbs, all three of which fall within the final third of the stage. The riders then have a flat run in over the last 23km. It should be the first GC test of the race as Valach told.

 

“Tomorrow will be a different day. It will be a hard stage, a long one, and we have to pay attention to the breakaways. It will be a stage where the strong riders can make a difference. We will look after Jesper and see what we can do.”

 

Quiet day for Katusha leaders in Poland

Stage 2 in the 73rd Tour of Poland (Tour de Pologne) ended in another mass sprint, this one won by Fernando Gaviria (Etixx – Quick Step) on a day that saw Team KATUSHA riders eager to stay safe and out of harm’s way.

 

”In the beginning the stage went super fast. In the first 40 km nobody could get away. Later there were two attempts by groups of 9-10 riders, but they never had more than 40 seconds. Just before we entered the local laps, a group of 5 broke away, but the peloton controlled them very well. For us it was a calm stage, with the main goal to protect our GC guys and to avoid any problems on the laps. So we passed it well,” said team director Claudio Cozzi.

 

Astana focus on Dario Cataldo at Tour de Pologne

"You must always try,” said Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev. “And when I saw the breakaway going I decided to enter too.

 

"It was hard to get to the finish, but you never know. If there will be another occasion with no doubt I will try again.”

 

"After yesterday's crash,” Astana sports director Dmitri Sedoun said, “Bakhtiyar had a good reaction. From tomorrow we will start to see who wants to win this Tour de Pologne and I think our Dario Cataldo can do well.”