Sergio Henao wins stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne to move into overall lead

Sergio Henao finished off excellent work by his Sky team to solo to victory on stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne, coming to the line 8 seconds ahead of the chase group led home by Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin).

It was an important victory for the Colombian, whose last win came in 2013 at the Vuelta al País Vasco - a year in which he was also second at La Flèche Wallonne. Henao was taken off Team Sky's roster in early 2014 due to irregularities with his blood values, but he was cleared to resume racing after tests showed the values were caused by being at altitude. However, in his first race back, the Tour de Suisse, he crashed and broke his kneecap - an injury that almost led him to quit cycling altogether.

"I have to thank the people closest to me, my girlfriend and the team that believed in me and waited for me," Henao said. "This year I had some good results in the Pais Vasco and the Tour of California. I came close to victory, but I was always missing that little something to win. Now I’m happy with this success and I want to thank my family and my team again for always believing in me.”

Overnight leader Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) fought valiantly until the final kilometer, but lost contact in the surge to the line and conceded the yellow jersey to the stage winner Henao.

Ulissi sits second but on the same time as Henao, with De Clercq holding onto third overall, 10 seconds behind.

The Italian might well have been wearing the yellow jersey but for a protracted game of cat and mouse with his fellow chasers Fabio Aru (Astana) and Ion Iziagirre (Movistar), whose rubbernecking slowed the chase and allowed Henao to maintain his winning gap.

“It was a hard stage,” Henao said. “I had ridden it already in previous years and I was familiar with it. I knew we had to wait for the last lap to see how the group was doing. The last climb was very complicated; for a while there were many attacks. It was very tiring with a very fast pace but with Nieve we tried to anticipate. Aru gave it a go and Astana set the pace. I stuck to his wheel and I found the strength for the winning counter attack. For tomorrow I must say that the time trial is not my specialty but I want to do well. I feel good and I want to fight for victory. We’ll see at the finish."

How it unfolded

The profile for the 'king' stage of the Tour de Pologne looked like the teeth of a crown, with no fewer than eight classified climbs on tap for the 174km stage in Bukovina. The circuit started out relatively calm, with a roll out to a 5.3km loop taken in three times before the race embarked on the four 38.4km circuits each with two climbs - all category 1.

World Champion Michal Kwiatkowski launched the day's move that read like an all-star list of Polish cycling. The breakaway included Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo), Kwiatkowski and three Etixx-Quickstep teammates, Michal Golas, Gianluca Brambilla and Carlos Verona, Diego Rosa (Astana), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Dylan Teuns and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha), Bram Tankink (Team LottoNL-Jumbo), Arnold Jeannesson and Kenny Elissonde (FDJ.fr), Maciej Paterski and Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) and Tomasz Marczynski (Poland).

Kwiatkowski continued to push the pace, taking out the first sprint and the first climb of the day before settling back into the group. Paterski went over the next three climbs first before Tankink launched a solo move on the fifth climb of the day. Poljanski bridged across to the Dutch rider with 42km to go as the chasing group behind began to splinter.

Diego Rosa (Astana) made a move on the next climb to bridge across to the leaders, and Tankink threw in the towel shortly thereafter, leaving Poljanski and Rosa to go it alone over the top. Tankink came through just ahead of what was left of the peloton, only half a minute behind the two leaders.

Poljanski was the next rider to drop off as Rosa forged on alone, but he too was just dangling in front of the peloton on the final lap as Team Sky led the bunch for Henao. It wasn't long before Rosa was caught as well.

The course took its toll on the peloton, with numerous riders taking an early exit to the team buses, and only 40 or so riders remained in contention with 20km to go. Ian Boswell led the peloton down the narrow ribbon of fresh tarmac that winds through the countryside at 70kph leading into the penultimate climb with 12.6km to go. Race leader De Clercq was still tucked in the bunch as Mikel Nieve (Sky) attacked the climb, and De Clercq deftly rode his way to the head of the chasers just meters behind the Spaniard.

Team Sky gave the peloton a one-two punch as Henao countered his teammate's move, but De Clercq held fast with Aru also attentive. Lawson Craddock (Giant-Alpecin) dashed out of the bunch on a flatter section of road, and was joined by Ben Hermans (BMC) and Nieve before the fast descent to the final climb.

The trio never got very far, but Nieve wasn't done yet. With 10km to go he put in a big move on the undulating road, taking advantage of the high speed to put De Clercq, now isolated, under pressure. Hermans added to the distress for the Lotto Soudal rider by jumping away to join Nieve. Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) dangled in no man's land as the final ascent drew near, but Astana, keep to set up Fabio Aru, pulled him back with 4.5km to go.

Hermans and Nieve had 20 seconds with 3km to go, and Aru saw the pair ahead and attacked but failed to get a gap. The surge succeeded in nailing back Hermans and Nieve, but also provided a launch pad for Henao, who attacked the steepest part of the climb.

De Clercq began to lose contact with 2km to go as Aru piled on the pressure in an attempt to bring Henao back. The Italian, however, was getting no help from his companions, and he chose to play cat and mouse rather than pour on more effort to bring back the Sky rider.

Henao was playing no such games and danced away to the stage win as the chase group ballooned. De Clercq found his way back into the group, but lost contact again in the dash to the line and said goodbye to the yellow jersey.

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