Long Poland stage ends in another massive pileup

The Tour of Poland's marathon stage five journey from Wrzesnia - Swidnica surprisingly ended in another bunch sprint which, for the second day in a row, was disrupted by a large crash in the final kilometre on Thursday. After Wednesday's crash which sent the sprinters spilling across the line, this wreck happened in a turn near the two kilometre to go point. According to the Rabobank website, the Milram team was leading the peloton when two riders crashed on a bend and dozens of riders piled up behind them.

The Milram website confirmed that Mirco Lorenzetto and Sebastian Siedler crashed on that bend, while Rabobank confirmed that its rider, Mathew Hayman fell but escaped serious injury. The team's sprinter, Graeme Brown was not involved in the crash, but was unable to contest the sprint won by Brazilian Murilo Fischer (Liquigas).

Rabobank team manager Frans Maassen was sure Hayman would start on Friday, as Brown did today. "Graeme did sustain some damage on Wednesday but I did not hear any complaints from him. He was also determined to participate in the sprint but that did not happen because of that crash. Mathew is such a tough guy; I fully expect him to get on his bike on Thursday like usual."

Maassen was also happy that his leader, Robert Gesink, made it through the crash unscathed, but criticised the length of the stage. "Stages this long are outdated," Maassen said. "I do not understand why they put a stage like this in the tour. There is no fun whatsoever. Shorter stages are much more spectacular," Maassen complained, but hoped that the remaining stages would provide more fireworks. "We are ready for it. Gesink is in good shape. It will not yet happen on Friday because the final climb, which is 800 meters high, is on twenty kilometres from the finish. We finish uphill on Saturday."