Tour de Pologne: Pelucchi wins on stage 2

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Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) claimed stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne ahead of Marcel Kittel (Giant Alpecin) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing).

Pelucchi came through perfectly on the line and held off a late challenge from Kittel who started from too far back after narrowly avoiding late crash in the final 500 meters.

Caleb Ewan (Orica GreenEdge) clashed wheels with Sacha Modolo (Lampre Merida) with the Australian hitting the deck. The Italian stayed upright and went onto finish fifth but the majority of the peloton were blocked just before line after Ewan’s fall sparked a mass crash.

Kittel and Pelucchi both avoided the fall but the Italian moved ahead of Kittel – a move that sparked a angry reaction from Kittel – before opening up their sprints. Kittel went left and Pelucchi went right but the IAM Cycling rider had the shorter distance to cover, the German giving himself too much ground to make up. Kittel retains his overall lead in the race.

The early phase of the race was marked with a five-man break consisting of Kamil Gradek (Poland), Adrian Kurek (CCC Sprandi), Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal) and Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo).

They established a lead of no more than a couple of minutes with a stage profile lending itself to a second consecutive bunch sprint, and with so many fresh sprinters in the race there was little chance of a break contesting the win.

Astana, Trek, Orica GreenEdge and Giant Alpecin all patrolled the front of the peloton over the 146km course before a finishing circuit.

With the break caught at 20 kilometres to go it was Astana who hit the front with real venom some 10 kilometres later as they looked to propel Andrea Guardini towards a stage win. However, they were swamped by a rampaging Orica GreenEdge, with Ewan a favourite having finished second on stage one.

The Australian sprinter was crowed out by Modolo however and was left with little room before losing his front wheel and crashing. The fall sparked chaos with a leading field reduced to less than a dozen riders.

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