Greipel sprints to win

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André Greipel of HTC-Columbia won a chaotic sprint on stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne, beating Allan Davis (Astana) and Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) in the bunch gallop.

"It was very long day," said Greipel. "It was hot, the pace was very high and we were all very tired at the end. The final laps were pretty risky, there was a lot of turns and I had to be very careful.

"In the final sprint I managed to find some gaps between the sprinters and I took advantage of it. It turned out to be a great move.

"Yesterday I was not able to take part in the sprint due to a crash in the last kilometre but I'm not complaining about that. It's just part of the game. I'm really glad that I won today and I have opened my winning account."

Today's victory is the 28-year-old German's second win at the Polish race after winning the final stage in Krakow in last year's edition.

While Davis had to settle for second place on the stage, the Australian took over the race lead from the previous day's stage winner Jacopo Guarnieri (Liquigas-Doimo).

"Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish it off," said Davis. "I tried really hard today, just like yesterday. I gave my best in the final sprint but André Greipel was too strong. Even though I haven't won so far in this year’s edition I can still be satisfied with my performance. I got third on the first stage and second today.

"It’s a great feeling to have the yellow jersey and I will do my best to win tomorrow, in Katowice."

Yesterday's massive crash with 1.5km remaining didn't cause any serious injuries and all of the riders stood at the start line in Rawa Mazowiecka. The only rider who didn't finish the first stage was Timothy Gudsell (Française Des Jeux) but his abandonment was due to an earlier crash.

The first kilometer of the longest stage in this year's Tour de Pologne was marked by many attempts to break clear but it was Marcin Sapa (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland BGZ), Tom Stubbe (Omega Pharma - Lotto) and Gabriel Rasch (Cervélo TestTeam) who managed to successfully form the breakaway of the day.

The gap rose with every stroke of the pedal and at the 80km mark the quartet held a 10-minute lead. At that point the escapees were sharing the work but there was still 160 kilometers ahead of them.

After the feeding zone the peloton didn't show any signs of urgency and let the breakaway add another two minutes to their advantage. When the leading riders entered the Silesia region, however, with 95 kilometers to go, the main bunch decided that it's time to start reducing the gap. The sprinters' teams took the chase in their own hands and very quickly whittled down the break's lead to 4:45 with 50km left to race.

Compared to the first stage which contained six intermediate sprints, this time the riders had only two chances to gather points in the sprint classification. The first sprint was won by Matysiak while Sapa took a victory on the second one. Sapa also won the sole KOM on the category 3 climb at 224.3km.

With 25km remaining in the stage the break's lead was reduced to 2:20 as the teams of the fastest men in the field, Liquigas-Doimo, Milram, Saxo Bank and Vacansoleil, set the pace.

Just before entering the first of three finishing laps in Dabrowa Gornicza, Matysiak and Sapa attacked their breakaway companions Stubbe and Rasch. With 15 km to go the Polish duo had only a one minute advantage over the peloton which had absorbed Stubbe and Rasch. On the penultimate lap Matysiak and Sapa, too, were caught by the field.

In the final kilometres the onus was on Katusha to fight off the contenders and deliver its man, Danilo Napolitano, to the line. Later the Russian ProTour squad was joined in the front by Vacansoleil which was setting the pace for Borut Bozic, but they were not able to maintain the high speed for long.

Eventually none of the teams managed to control the mass sprint and the rider who had the strongest final kick was André Greipel (HTC-Columbia).

Stage runner-up Allan Davis (Astana) took over the general classification lead from Jacopo Guarnieri (Liquigas-Doimo) and the Australian will wear the yellow jersey on tomorrow's 122.1km stage from Sosnowiec to Katowice.

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