Greipel gets his stage

Team Columbia-HTC's André Greipel finally got the stage win he's been seeking on the last stage of the Tour of Poland on Saturday. The German sprinter blasted out of the bunch in the final 100m to win by a bike length over Garmin's Chris Sutton. The Australian barely held off Belgian Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) in the lunge for the line.

"This was a very important win for me," Greipel said. "It was my last chance here and I really didn't want to miss it. I've made mistakes during the previous stages here in Poland so I was in a bit of a rut, but now I've come through.

"It wasn't an easy finish. Three of my teammates got blocked when there was a crash with three and a half kilometres to go so I lost my lead-out train. The crash happened just in front of me but I got through it and then I linked up [Columbia-HTC team-mate] Marcel Sieberg with about 1500 metres left to race and he guided me through to the finish.

"Then after Marcel had set things up perfectly for me I wanted to thank my team-mates for all their support."

World Champion Alessandro Ballan easily held onto the bunch to take home his first ProTour stage race victory. The Italian ended the race with 10 seconds on Caisse d'Epargne's Daniel Moreno and 11 on stage three winner Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC).

The final stage was a relatively flat, short 136.4km journey from Rabka Zdroj to the historica city of Krakow.  After a fast start to the day, a group of 11 riders escaped to gain a maximum 2:25 on the field.

Michael Albasini (Team Columbia - HTC), Mauricio Ardila (Rabobank), Andrei Amador Bipkazacova and Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne), David Lopez Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne), Anthony Roux (Française Des Jeux), Ronny Scholz and Matthias Russ (Team Milram), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Ian Stannard (ISD) and Jason McCartney (Team Saxo Bank) made up the move.

Marcato spent most of the day in the virtual race lead, as the highest placed rider in the lead group. But the Lampre squad of Ballan steadily ate away at the leaders' advantage.

By the time the race rolled through the final sprint in Wjeliczka, the peloton was bearing down on the 11 men. Stannard was the last man standing, and was joined just off the front of the chasing peloton by Marek Rutkiewicz (Team Poland Bank BGZ). Francis Mourey (Francaise des Jeux) also bridged across, but with just a handful of seconds and a three flat 4km circuits, the trio's time in the lead was short.

Team Columbia-HTC took control of the peloton to keep the pace high on the second circuit, but then the Astana and Garmin squads came to the fore as the race entered the final kilometres.

But no sprinter could match the power of Greipel, who timed his jump perfectly to claim yet another career sprint victory after being denied all week in Poland.