Tour de Pologne: Two wins in two days for Pelucchi in Katowice

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Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) claimed his second consecutive stage victory in the Tour de Pologne, but this time there were no objections and no crashes, just pure speed and perfect timing from the Italian. Race leader Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) lost his position on a climb with 1km to go, and while he did well to follow the surge from the IAM lead-out in the final metres, he did not quite have enough to contest for the victory.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) fell just short of holding off his countryman after opening up the sprint, while Tom Van Aesbroeck (LottoNl-Jumbo) tried to match the Italians but faded to third.

Fortunately for Kittel, none of the riders in the time bonuses could gain enough to unseat him from the yellow jersey, and he continues to lead the race over Nizzolo, who is now at six seconds back, with Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) in third at 10.

While perhaps more chaotic than the stage 2 sprint, which was marred by a huge crash after the fall of Ewan in the final few hundred metres, the sprint into Katowice ended up safely, thanks in part to a late attack by Petr Vakoc (Etixx-QuickStep) that broke up the lead-out trains.

Vakoc's move went on a slight climb with 1km to go, splitting the peloton in two. He was hauled back just in time for the final sprint, quickly marked by a Katusha rider, with LottoNl-Jumbo and Trek in tow, the rest of the peloton fighting desperately to catch back.

The downhill run to the line helped the IAM train with an impressively quick surge on the left side of the road, while Giant-Alpecin saw behind them looking around for Kittel, who was fighting to move up on the outside.

As the IAM lead-out train ran out of steam, Nizzolo opened up the sprint and was followed by Van Aesbrock, but Pelucchi was tucked in behind, waiting until the final 30 metres to punch through and take the victory.

"I was lucky to win. For me, it's already a good moment, and I'm very happy," Pelucchi said after his second win. "After the bunch split, I was lucky because I had Reynes and Kluge and they pushed me to the front. I wanted to wait a little bit, because it was too early to get into the wind. It was a good tactic, but also dangerous, because it was a little bit close in the final. I was lucky to find a good wheel."

Kittel fought valiantly to regain the front of the race, but could only manage seventh on the stage, his overall advantage slipping down to six seconds on Nizzolo.

How it unfolded

The 166km stage from Zawiercie to Katowice saw a six-man breakaway go clear early in the stage, with the Polish national team well represented again. Kamil Gradek made it back in the move again, joined by teammate Marcin Bialoblocki. Marcus Burghardt (BMC) spent his second day off the front, as did Adrian Kurek (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), who has in every breakaway so far. Matej Mohoric (Cannondale-Garmin), who was off the front on stage 1 was also present, finally joined by Ian Boswell (Team Sky).

Kurek, the leader in the mountains classification, padded his lead on the first climb at 135km into the stage. The gap, which had never been more than a couple minutes, was under a minute with only 33km to go, and Gradek was left behind with Burghardt. With 23km to go, Bioloblocki launched an attack, and although Boswell held on for a time, he went back to the peloton as the gap was just too small to survive.

On the final climb of the day with 13km to go, Movistar's Jasha Sutterlin had a go, but could neither sufficiently distance the peloton nor catch the Pole up front, and he was soon caught back.

Bioloblocki flew his national colours for the home fans until 4.2km to go when the peloton swept past, led by Orica-GreenEdge, who was looking for revenge after yesterday's disaster. Soon Giant-Alpecin led Kittel to the front, knowing that the small climb with a kilometre to go would be difficult, but their efforts were thwarted by the attack of the Czech champion Vakoc.

Kittel's lead-out men looked around, then went back to pull him back into contention on the quick final kilometre, but were just too late, and Pelucchi took this win without flying elbows or sudden changes in direction, only through pure speed.

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