Tour of Poland: Van Genechten claims first WorldTour win

Image 1 of 67

Jonas Van Genechten (Lotto-Belisol) claimed victory on stage 4 of the Tour of Poland with a well-timed sprint in Katowice, edging out Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana) and the fast-closing Luca Mezgec (Giant-Shimano) in a blanket finish.

The Belgian came from a long way back to overhaul Guarnieri and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) in the closing 100 metres, but in the event, his positioning played to his advantage – as did his foresight in his gear selection.

"The last bit of the stage was about timing. I wasn't in the best position, in the first ten, but it was the best place to come from the back with the speed," Van Genechten explained. "Yesterday I asked the mechanic to change the big chainring and put on the 54: maybe that made the difference."

The win was Van Genechten’s first at WorldTour level and his first of any description since landing the GP Pino Cerami last year. "This is my biggest victory so far so I am absolutely delighted. Usually I am a bit like Greg Henderson: I work for our leaders André Greipel or Jens Debusschere in the sprints, or even for Kenny De Haes here at the Tour of Poland," Van Genechten said. "But Kenny said with two laps to go that he didn't feel very good so I could try my luck."

Van Genechten's joy contrasted with the frustration of Luca Mezgec. The Slovenian had appeared well-positioned as Lampre’s Roberto Ferrari kicked off the sprint with 300 metres to go, but he managed to get himself penned in by his own lead-out man Nikias Arndt, and could only open his effort in earnest inside the final 50 metres.

"In such a sprint you can't get blocked at all and it's pretty much what happened to me: I couldn't pedal from 200 to 50 metres to the finish line. When I found the opening again it was too late," Mezgec said.

Mezgec’s speed was enough to overhaul Modolo, but on the opposite side of the road, Van Genechten had jumped into a lead that he would not surrender.

Vakoc retains lead

In the general classification, Petr Vakoc (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) remains in the yellow jersey with a lead of 26 seconds over Matthias Krizek (Cannondale). Krizek moved up to second place thanks the bonus seconds he picked up by winning all three bonus seconds on the stage, having spent most of the stage off the front in the break of the day.

After an early move that saw Lotto’s Boris Vallee move into the provisional overall lead was reeled in, Krizek jumped off the front with Josh Edmondson (Sky) and Mateusz Taciak (CCC Polsat). The trio built up a maximum lead of four minutes, and still had two in hand as they entered the final 50 kilometres.

With 28 kilometres remaining, they received some important reinforcements when Jerome Cousin (Europcar) and Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Poland) forged across, although by that point, their lead had been slashed to just 35 seconds as Belkin took up the reins of pursuit in earnest on the finishing circuit.

Taciak’s failure to collaborate in the closing kilometres as he chased king of the mountains points appeared to be the source of some discord within the break, with Cousin and Kasperkiewicz ultimately opting to zip clear together. Their act of defiance was snuffed out with 9 kilometres to go, however, as was a later move that saw Angelo Tulik (Europcar) joined by Fabio Felline (Trek) and Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Shimano).

Thor Hushovd (BMC) offered the final and firmest act of resistance to the inevitable sprint when he launched a canny attack 1,500 metres from home, just as the course tackled a series of short ripples. His powerful effort saw him open a small gap over the bunch, but unfortunately for the Norwegian, there was not sufficient hesitation for his sake in the chasing pack and he was swept up with 600 metres to go.

Mezgec had Giant-Shimano’s strength of numbers in the finale, while Modolo had the forceful Ferrari to lead out the sprint, but in the end, it was Van Genechten who had the strength and the wit to grab the win.

Thursday sees the race cross over the border into Slovakia for the first hilly stage, and Vakoc was optimistic about his chances of retaining the overall lead. "I am confident I can hold the yellow jersey tomorrow after the first mountain stage," said Vakoc. "I already know the final hill because we already climbed it at the Tour of Slowakia. It suits me very well because it's short and steep [max. 16%, Ed.]. But Tinkoff-Saxo will definitely be strong as they want Rafal Majka to win the race."

Full Results