Tour de Pologne: Wellens wins stage 5

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Lotto Soudal's Tim Wellens won a rain soaked stage of the Tour de Poland in which 85 riders abandoned, including race leader Fernando Gaviria (Etixx-Quick Step), to move into the race leader's yellow jersey. The Belgian took the victory ahead of Cannondale-Drapac's Davide Formolo by 3:48 minutes with teammate Tiesj Benoot third at 4:37 minutes.

Wellens now holds a commanding 4:05 minute lead over Formolo with two stages to come.

"It was a very spectacular day today. After twenty kilometres, the race was neutralized for a moment because of a big crash took place," said Wellens. "The weather conditions were very bad the whole day so the road was slippery and dangerous. Luckily, I was saved from the misfortune. After the neutralization, many attempts to set up a break occurred. At a certain moment, a decided to join a break together with Sander Armée. In my opinion, it was good to be in a break because there wasn't a particular team that controlled the race. I thought that we might have a chance to remain ahead. Sander did a lot of work in the front group, therefore I was able to sit back a bit."

The win is Wellens' third in the WorldTour this season following a final day win in Paris-Nice and solo stage win in Roccaraso (Aremogna) at the Giro d'Italia. With the yellow jersey firmly on his shoulders, Wellens explained that he will try to claim the overall honours.

"Because of this performance, I have a chance to win this year's Tour de Pologne," he said. "But it will be another two hard days in the saddle. Tomorrow's stage contains five laps with three climbs each so it will be a difficult stage. We have a very strong team, we can ride aggressively and that's exactly what we're going to try. Also the closing time trial suits me. I was very motivated to show myself in this Tour de Pologne and to aim for a good position on GC. This is a nice race with several possible outcomes. The race isn't controlled by a specific team and I like that kind of races."

The fifth stage of the race started with the race organisers presenting a Colnago bicycle to Pope Francis before the peloton rolled out of Wieliczka.

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