65th Tour de Pologne 2008: Stage 4 Results

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Riders protest the dangerous circuits (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Leader Allan Davis (Quick Step) and a very miserable looking peloton. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Are we having fun yet? (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Riders protest the dangerous circuits which were to take place on a wet, technical city circuit. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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This Milram rider looks ready to go. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The Bouygues Telecom riders wonder why they became professional bike racers. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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Chris Horner (Astana) can't decide to laugh or cry over the race. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The motorcade gets ready to move. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The Scott-American Beef riders were putting on every item of clothing they had for the cold, rainy stage. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The Tour of Poland peloton has been battling lousy weather since the start of the Tour. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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An air of "we're not excited about this" hung over the peloton after the start was moved due to bad weather. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

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The race jury decided to annull the stage results after a protest from the riders. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Due to riders protest on the finishing laps in Lublin, the stage results were annulled and therefore there was no winner of stage four in the 65th Tour de Pologne and no changes in the general standings of the race. Riders were to race 204 kilometers leg from Siemiatycze to Lublin, but the day's start was moved from Bielsk Podlaski to Siemiatycze, cutting some 40 kilometers off the stage because of bad weather that has troubled race from the beginning the week.

Some 15 kilomters into the stage Marcin Sapa from Polish National Team - Polska BGZ repeated his move from Tuesday and escaped from the bunch with two other riders: Frenchman Alexander Blain (Cofidis) and Spaniard Raul Alarcon (Scott-American Beef). At 40 kilometers mark they had a 5 minute lead on the peloton. The maximum lead reached 6:10 after the second intermediate sprint in Biala Podlaska. Two of the sprints were won by Blain and one by Sapa, who would have become the new leader in this competition if not for further events.

The breakaway was caught just before Lublin, although Sapa tried to survive at the front for as long possible with a solo effort lasting a few kilometers. Soon after peloton finally caught the Polish road race champion, the peloton dramatically slowed down to some 33 km/h, fearful of the wet roads on a rather technical finishing circuit in the city.

Finally after some discussions with the race jury, the riders decided not to race last of the three scheduled laps since they learned that time wasn't neutralized on the entry to the first finishing lap. Riders came to a stop with 4,5 kms before the planned finish, and the race jury decided to annull all results of the stage, including points gained by breakaways riders on the three intermediate sprints.