Hushovd wins stage 3 of Tour of Poland

Thor Hushovd (BMC) claimed victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Poland with a thundering sprint finish that saw him overcome the challenge of Steele Van Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) and Mark Renshaw (Belkin) in the finishing straight in Rzeszów. As the race returned to Poland after its opening weekend in Italy, local rider Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) retained the overall lead after enjoying an untroubled afternoon in the main peloton.

"I'm really happy to get this win. I was quite confident today and the team had a lot of confidence in me – so that really helped," Hushovd said.

"The wind was coming from the left, so I knew he (Renshaw) would close the door to the right," Hushovd said. "So I was already thinking about this and knew I would have to go left. Taylor Phinney did a good job and the whole team did really well."

It was Hushovd’s fourth victory of the season and one that owed much to the confidence placed in him by his BMC squad. The work of a sprint train is complicated at this Tour of Poland by the fact that teams are limited to just six riders apiece, but BMC compensated for that lack of numbers by showing full commitment to Hushovd’s cause.

"I think tomorrow there's going to be another bunch sprint," he said. "There are also a couple of harder stages that might be good for me. So there still might be some interesting days to come."

Marco Pinotti and Taylor Phinney, in particular, put in enormous stints at the front of the bunch as they helped to slash the advantage of early escapees Aleksandr Dyachenko (Astana), Ricardo Mestre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Bartlomiej Matysiak (CCC Polsat Polkowice), which stood at ten minutes at the midpoint of the stage.

As the peloton drew closer to Rzeszów, BMC were aided in their endeavour by Sky’s Danny Pate and later by emissaries from Cannondale, Garmin-Sharp and Colombia, and with 50 kilometres to go, the peloton’s deficit was at a more manageable five minutes.

From there on in, the gap began to fall at a steady rhythm, in spite of the best efforts of the quartet up front, who had broken clear shortly after the race left a rainy and overcast Krakow on Tuesday afternoon. Approaching the 6km-long finishing circuit in Rzeszów, which was to be covered three times, the break had just 1:30 in hand and was doubtless aware resigned to its fate, but Selvaggi led the resistance and the four stayed clear until the final two kilometres of the race.

Behind, meanwhile, the pace had continued to rise with regularity in the main peloton, and while BMC had dictated affairs for much of the final 50 kilometres, they risked being swept aside on the final lap, as both Argos-Shimano and Belkin jostled their way into the prime positions.

Indeed, it was Belkin who led the race into the final kilometre, with Robert Wagner and David Tanner looking to pilot Mark Renshaw to victory, although he had Hushovd tucked firmly on his wheel. Taylor Phinney, meanwhile, succeeded in infiltrating the Belkin train, and he set a fierce pace when he took over the pace-making with 500 metres to go.

When Phinney swung off, Renshaw was perhaps forced to open his sprint a little sooner than he would have liked and Hushovd duly grinded his way past the Australian inside the final 100 metres and held off the fast-closing Steele Von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) to take victory.

After a decidedly mixed campaign that saw him fall short at the Classics and fail to earn selection for the Tour de France, Hushovd has begun to show sustained flickers of his old self in recent weeks. Regaining his Norwegian title kick-started the process, and after stage victories at the Tour of Austria and now at the Tour of Poland – his first WorldTour win in over two years – Hushovd will be hoping he can continue in that tenor for the remainder of the season.

In the race for the overall standings, meanwhile, Rafal Majka retains his four-second lead over Sergio Henao (Sky), with Christophe Riblon (Ag2r-La Mondiale) a further two seconds back in third.

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