Tour de Pologne: Gaviria wins stage 2 in Katowice

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Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-QuickStep) sprinted to his second WorldTour win Wednesday during stage 2 at the Tour de Pologne, beating Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) to the line in Katowice. The 21-year-old Colombian's stage victory pushed him into the overall lead by six seconds ahead of teammate Davide Martinelli. Ewan is third, eight seconds back.

"It wasn't an easy stage, and the finale was really complicated, because we had a headwind and a downhill sprint," Gaviria said. "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 things became really stressful."

A five-rider breakaway animated the 128km second stage from Tarnowskie Góry to Katowice. The quintet of 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 come down over the finishing circuits in Katowice. They eventually succumbed to the chase, setting up the final sprint.

Gaviria, whose win followed Martinielli's for Etixx the day before, thanked his teammates for the win and said he would repay the team's support in the coming days.

"The guys were great, keeping me out of trouble and doing a flawless job today," he said. "We are very happy with this victory, which is of the entire team. In the Tour de Suisse I wasn't at 100 per cent, but I worked hard after the race and now things came together.

"We will see what the other stages for sprinters will bring, as 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 help."

The Polish tour continues Thursday with the 240km stage from Zawiercie to Nowy Sacz. The mountain stage starts with a sawtooth profile and concludes with a category 1 climb followed by two hors category climbs.

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