Sagan secures time bonus, wins overall

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Dan Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) saw a second consecutive overall victory at the Tour of Poland snatched from his grasp on the finish line in Kraków after Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished second in the sprint behind winner Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) and so won overall by six seconds.

Martin’s teammate Heinrich Haussler took the three second time bonus intermediate sprint from Sagan late in the stage but Sagan knew that a place in the top three at the end of the stage would give him overall victory (Note--Haussler was later relegated for his actions in the intermediate sprint which gave Sagan the three-second bonus). The Slovak road champion followed Kittel in the stage finale and cleverly took second, celebrating at the same time as the German rider. Leigh Howard (HTC-Highroad) finished third in the sprint.

It was Kittel’s fourth sprint win of the race and confirmed him as one of the riding sprint stars in the peloton. He faces a much bigger test at the rapidly approaching Vuelta a Espana but seems to have the power, speed and confidence to take on his bigger-name rivals starting from August 20 in Benidorm.

“When I came to this race, I’d hoped to win one stage. Four is a fantastic result,” Kittel said.

“It's also a good thing I finished a stage as hard as yesterday. It was a real nightmare! Fortunately Albert Timmer helped him. The Tour of Poland was a hard race. But again I've got to say a big thank you to everyone in the team.

"The sprint was very fast today although you could see everyone was tired. Sagan really wanted the final victory, his team led the peloton, and it was very good for us. I just have to keep my position.”

Martin finished in the peloton and could only watch as Sagan celebrated overall victory by pulling a wheelie as he rode back to the podium to be crowd overall winner. Italy’s Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) finished third overall at seven seconds.

"It's definitely the best success in my career. It will stick in my memory forever, because today I could have won or lost by three seconds,” Sagan said.

“After the intermediate sprint I was frustrated because I didn’t take the maximum bonus time (Sagan did not yet know Haussler had been relegated--ed.). In my head I could have resigned myself to defeat but instead I focused on the final sprint. My team did a strong work for me again and it helped a lot."

Dan Martin was pragmatic about defeat.

"The route this year didn't really suit me and I came for a stage win. The yellow jersey was a surprise and to wear it, a bonus,” he said.

“Today the tactic was to cross my fingers and hope three people would beat Sagan in the sprints. I did the best I could and I was even involved in the bonus sprint! Heinrich [Haussler] and the team did great work, too."

Feisty finale

After the rain and long transfer of the previous day, the riders were happy to see the sun shine in Kraków for the final circuit stage. A ten-rider break animated the racing for much of the stage but the peloton was all back together on the circuits of Kraków. The intermediate sprint was placed after the fourth lap, with just 27km to go, and everyone knew it would play a huge part in deciding the race.

Although no slouch in a sprint, Martin knew he had no chance against Sagan and let Haussler take him on. It was a clever plan and the tough Aussie out-manoeuvred Sagan by squeezing him against the barriers going through a final corner before the line. The two touched elbows and then argued and waved their arms at each other. For his actions, Haussler would be relegated after the conclusion of the stage, but the riders continued racing thinking the results had stood, with Haussler earning a three-second bonus and Sagan two seconds. Sagan believed he was still one second shy of Martin's overall time and thus thought he had to finish in the top three at the stage finish to take the 10, 6 or 4 second time bonuses to move past Martin.

The final laps were all about the build-up to the final sprint. Nelson Oliveira (RadioShack) and Polish national champion Tomasz Marczynski (CCC Polsat – Polkowice) got away after a crash split the peloton briefly but they acted as the hare for the sprinters’ team to chase in the final half hour of racing. Marczynski comes from close to Kraków and desperately tried to win with a solo move but he was swept up with a kilometre to go and then Liquigas-Cannondale took over as they piloted Sagan to victory.

Skil-Shimano provided a lead-out for Kittel but Sagan was tucked carefully on his wheel and followed him towards the line, knowing that it was a perfect ride to overall victory.