Hushovd sprints to stage 5 victory in Poland

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The BMC Racing Team is firing on all cylinders at the Tour of Poland as Thor Hushovd sprinted to victory in stage 5, the Norwegian champion's second stage win in three days. Sandwiched between Hushovd's wins was yesterday's solo victory by teammate Taylor Phinney, resulting in three straight wins for the BMC squad.

Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ.fr) finished second behind Hushovd on the 160.5km stage from Nowy Targ to Zakopane with Daniele Ratto (Cannondale) completing the stage podium in third place. A 50-rider strong peloton arrived together at the finish having neutralised a late-race break with 5km to go.

"For sure, the sprint was a perfect one for me," Hushovd said. "I knew if the group came back, I would have a good chance. The last climb was hard, but the team did a good job and everyone was working well together like we have been the whole race."

Unique to this year's Tour of Poland is the daily "attractivity" classification in which the points earned in each day's mountains competition and intermediate sprints are combined and the top three points scorers each day receive 30-second, 20-second and 10-second time bonuses respectively. Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was a beneficiary of that today as he placed third on stage 5's attractivity and thus received a 10-second time bonus. Having started the stage just nine seconds behind overall leader Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff), the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider moved into the general classification lead by one-second over Majka. Sergio Henao (Sky) dropped from second to third at five seconds.

An aggressive start

After an animated beginning to the stage, an eight-rider break went clear on the day's first categorised climb, the category 1-rated Lapszanka with its summit situated 50.3km into the stage. Included in the break were Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Mathias Frank (BMC), Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM), Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ.fr), Jacek Morajko and Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Polsat), Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) and Pawel Cieslik (Poland).

Following that climb, Atapuma dropped back while the seven remaining riders continued on the attack.

Marczynski, the 2012 Tour of Poland mountains classification winner, took top honours on the first climb and as the break made its way on to the 40.5km finishing circuit, to be completed twice, the Vacansoleil-DCM rider continued his assault on the mountains classification.

The finishing circuit contained a category one-rated ascent, the Glodówka, situated midway through the loop as well as a category two-rated climb, the Droga do Olczy, whose summit was 3.1km from the finish line.

Marczynski was the first over the Droga do Olczy as the break entered the circuit and saw two laps to go as they crossed through the finish line. The 29-year-old Pole was first over both climbs as the break completed their first full lap and now had earned 30 points on the day and led the classification as mountains leader Thomas Rohregger (RadioShack Leopard) started the day with 27 points and had been shut out thus far in the stage.

The seven-man break's lead had been steadily coming down, however, with riders from Team Colombia setting the pace at the head of the peloton. As the escapees crossed the finish line and heard the bell for one (long) lap to go, their advantage on the peloton was just over one minute.

Marczynski wanted desperately to reach the category one climb's summit first once again and under his impetus two riders, Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ) and Pawel Cieslik (Poland), were jettisoned from the break.

On the lower slopes of the Glodówka climb, with the break's lead under 40 seconds, Leopold Konig (NetApp-Endura) attacked the peloton in hopes of riding across to the leaders. Shortly after his attack, Mihaylov jumped away from the break and gained a slight lead at the head of the race.

Konig was chased down by the peloton, reduced in size on the ascent, while Mihaylov was brought back by his fellow breakaway riders.

Halfway up the climb, however, the break was caught and several counter-attacks were launched from the peloton. Despite the aggressive racing, it remained gruppo compatto in the approach to the Glodówka summit where Rohregger accelerated to take top honours. The Austrian was followed over the summit by Jon Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and then Marczynski, whose third place points kept him in the virtual mountains classification lead by two points over Rohregger with one climb remaining.

A threatening break in the stage finale

The fourth rider over the summit, Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), accelerated away from the field and gained a slight gap as he reached 85km/hr on the rapid descent. Paterski would soon be joined by a five-rider chase group containing Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack Leopard), Luis Leon Sanchez (Belkin), Sergei Chernetski (Katusha) and Darwin Atapuma (Colombia).

The group worked smoothly together and as the roads flattened out their lead over the peloton stood at 15 seconds with 14.5km remaining. Riblon and Kiserlovski were both danger men to Rafal Majka as Riblon started the day six seconds back on general classification while Kiserlovski trailed Majka by 16 seconds overall. In addition to any time gaps over the field they would earn if the break stayed away, there were also time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds to the stage's top three finishers up for grabs.

At 7.5km to go, approximately halfway up the day's final climb, the break's lead remained at 15 seconds and Majka tried to take matters into his own hands, launching an attack from the peloton. The Saxo-Tinkoff Pole was quickly brought back, and perhaps his urgency spurred on the field to finally close the gap. At 5km to go, the break was caught.

In the approach to the final KOM, three riders slipped off the front as Izaguirre led Warren Barguil (AG2R La Mondiale) and Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) over the summit, but the trio were not allowed any daylight and were quickly brought back. As Rohregger was unable to earn any KOM points he lost his classification lead to Marczynski.

As a peloton approximately 50-strong charged to the finish line there was no immediate organisation at the front. Ultimately it would be Team Sky who took control inside the final kilometre hoping to deliver Sergio Henao to the line and possibly into the overall lead. Hushovd, however, had other ideas and waited patiently behind Henao as the Colombian's teammate Rigoberto Uran provided the final lead-out on the uphill drag to the line.

As Henao started his sprint, David Tanner (Belkin) came around the Colombian, but neither were a match for Hushovd once his sprint kicked into high gear. The Norwegian champion charged away to victory, his second in three days and his team's third straight win.

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