Tour de Pologne: Martinelli wins opening stage

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Davide Martinelli took out the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne, jumping clear ahead of the sprint in the final 500m of the 135km stage to Warsaw. The Italian joined a small attack in the final kilometer with teammate Zdenek Stybar, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky), then hit out as the peloton rejoined.

Martinelli's teammate Fernando Gaviria won the sprint for second place over Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange).

"In the last kilometer, just before the cobbled part, I took the corner full gas and saw Stybar pass me, as he was closing an attack of Kwiatkowski. Then I followed Gilbert, who made a move, and seized the moment," Martinelli said.

"I looked over my shoulder twice, noticed that I have a gap and realized I can win. It’s a dream to take my maiden World Tour victory and I’m very happy. It’s a special day which I’ll always remember."

The short stage was contested at a furious pace, with a six-man breakaway forging clear early in the stage. Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Marc Fournier (FDJ), Jonas Koch (Verva-Activejet), Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Szymon Rekita (Poland) and Peter Williams (ONE Pro Cycling) made up the move.

With such a short stage, the breakaway wasn't given much room, maxing out their advantage at 3:40 before being quickly reeled in. Fournier claimed the intermediate sprint, and Marycz the one category 4 climb they traversed before the peloton began nipping at their heels with 20km to go.

De Marchi and Marycz attacked to try to remain clear ahead of the final intermediate sprint, and narrowly managed it with Marycz taking the points, but the peloton caught them just after and immediately CCC's Maciej Paterski launched a solo attack.

His move did not last, and the peloton came into the final circuit intact. An AG2R La Mondiale rider launched a futile attack with 2km to go, but it was just before the final kilometer banner that Michal Kwiatkowski attacked across the pavé, sparking a move with Stybar and Gilbert, with Martinelli tacking on.

Martinelli's attack out of that group might have been just to play some team tactics, but it paid off with the win as the rest of the sprinters began looking at each other behind the Etixx rider. He had plenty of space to celebrate his victory with Gaviria dashing ahead of Ewan to make it an Etixx 1-2.

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