Tour of Poland: Bos wins stage 3 sprint

Theo Bos (Belkin) claimed victory on stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne in a fiercely-contested bunch sprint in Rzeszów. The Dutchman delivered a powerful finish to overhaul Luka Mezgec (Giant-Shimano) in the closing metres, while Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) took third.

Czech rider Petr Vakoc (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) retains the overall lead after finishing safely in the main peloton. He remains 27 seconds clear of Yauheni Hutarovich (Ag2r-La Mondiale), while Bos moves up to third overall at the same time.

Bos’ Belkin team controlled the peloton for most of the flat and fast finishing circuit around Rzeszów, with the Australian pair of Jack Bobridge and David Tanner particularly prominent, but he was left largely to his own devices in the final 1,500 metres as Giant-Shimano took up the reins in support of Mezgec.

Bos showed sound judgement by tucking in behind Mezgec and Matthews ahead of the final right-hand corner, and then he timed his effort to perfection inside the final 250 metres. After allowing Sacha Modolo’s early surge peter out, Bos jumped off Matthews’ wheel shortly after Mezgec had launched his sprint, and he powered past the Slovenian within sight of the line to claim the win.

"Today our tactic was to work for Markus (Barry)," Bos revealed afterward. "It was very difficult to take the lead on these narrow roads but we succeeded. It was a very fast stage and Tour of Poland my bigger race so far this year. It's never easy for me to win at the WorldTour's level so I am super happy I could do it here today. My legs are good so I will see if I can try tomorrow. But that's a long stage with a very technical final circuit and I don't necessarily like these conditions."

The day’s stage was animated by a four-man breakaway featuring Salvatore Puccio (Sky), Björn Thurau (Europcar), Pawel Franczak (Poland) and Mateusz Taciak (CCC Polsat). The Polish pairing of Franczak and Taciak kicked off the attacking shortly after the flag was dropped, and were joined in turn by Puccio and Thurau.

Together, the quartet reached a steady working agreement, and quickly established a lead of 3:15, but it was soon apparent that the peloton – stung, no doubt, by Petr Vakoc’s surprise win the previous day – was going to keep very close tabs on the escapees.

With 30 kilometres remaining, their lead had been clipped back to a little over a minute, and it feel incrementally thereafter under the impetus of Belkin’s forcing until they were caught with a little under 12 kilometres to go.

The fast finishing circuit was made up largely of wide roads and sweeping turns, and thankfully there was no repeat of the spate of crashes that so marred the opening day of racing, although Ben Swift (Sky) was a faller in the final kilometre. A little earlier, meanwhile, an inflatable banner which collapsed just before the peloton passed by with 8km to go briefly caused confusion, but mercifully, everybody emerged unscathed.

"It was a very nice feeling to wear the yellow jersey," Vakoc said. "A lot of people congratulated me this morning. That's also the first time the team has worked for me - it happened last year on a smaller race and with less riders surrounding me, at the Tour of Slovakia. So I have well recovered from by long breakaway yesterday. I now hope I can keep the jersey as long as possible."

The high speeds in the finale meant that there was precious little scope for late attacks although Sam Bewley (Orica-GreenEdge) gamely tried to zip off the front at the beginning of the final lap of the 6km-long finishing circuit. He was swept up shortly afterwards, however, and the scene was set for the mass finish.

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