Mollema solos to victory

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After a perfectly-timed solo attack on the final climb, Bauke Mollema from Rabobank won stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne. It was also a great day for Daniel Martin (Garmin-Transitions) who crossed the line nine seconds behind the winner and maintained his lead in the GC.

It's never easy to cover 228 kilometers on the bike. It's even harder if there are six first category climbs on the way and uphill finish. That was the case on the stage 6 which was decisive in terms of who will win the final classification.

"It's a great feeling to win a stage in a ProTour race," said the 23-year-old Mollema. "It's a special day for me because it's the first victory in my professional career. The course was really hard, with a few very steep hills. It was definitely not easy to be the first one to cross the line today."

Daniel Martin again took advantage of his team and climbing prowess on the finishing ascent to close the gap to Mollema, who threatened the Irishman's leader's jersey.

"I have to thank my teammates for a great job they did today," said Martin, leader of general classification. "It was an amazing, hard and challenging stage. On the final climb there were only two guys from my team left. We had to answer almost every attack but we managed to control the race.

"When I got information on the radio that Mollema is only 29 seconds behind in the GC I decided to pick up the pace and reduce the gap. I'm really glad that we were able to protect the lead before the final flat stage. However, we still need to stay focused since Grega Bola is a very fast rider and can gain some bonus seconds on the finish line."

After the procession start in Oswiecim the peloton made a brief stop at the concentration camp in Auschwitz and observed a minute of silence to remember the holocaust victims. The leaders of all the classifications and 34 riders who represent all nationalities taking part in the race also laid flowers during the ceremony at the Auschwitz Museum.

The first kilometers of racing were held under bad weather conditions. Torrential rain caused flooding on some sections of the road and caused a crash which involved approximately 15 riders. However it didn't stop a 6-man group from breaking clear. It included Mikhaylo Khalilov (Katusha), Javier Lorente Aramandia and Gorka Izagirre (both Euskaltel – Euskadi), Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) and the leader of the mountains classification and one of the most active riders in the race, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil).

When they reached a 2 minute advantage and the rain stopped pouring Marcin Sapa (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Michal Golas (Vacansoleil) and Alberto Losada (Caisse d'Epargne) decided to bridge the gap. They joined the leaders 61km into the stage and at that point the 8-man group had a maximum lead of 7 minutes. Soon after the peloton started reducing the deficit and when they got to the bottom of the first climb of the day the advantage dropped to 4 minutes.

With 70 kilometers to go, Khalilov got dropped from the break on the climb and was quickly absorbed by the field. However he was not the only one who had problems while climbing. On the second hill with a maximum grade of 22 percent some riders had to get off and walk their bikes.

Hoogerland secured the title of the King of the Mountains as he was the first man to the top on three out of the six climbs

Back in the peloton few riders including Vladimir Gusev (Katusha), Daryl Impey (RadioShack), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) and Tomasz Marczynski (Poland BGZ) made an attempt to join the breakaway but Garmin – Transtions was controlling the situation and reeled in all the escapees with 23 kilometers remaining.

Later Marek Rutkiewicz (Poland BGZ) and Oscar Pereiro (Astana) took off and built up 20 second gap. The former Tour de France winner was not able to keep up the Polish rider's pace and Rutkiewicz decided to go solo. He gained 35 second lead with 11 km to go.

With 4 km left Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil), Vladimi Gusev (Katusha) and Assan Bazayev (Astana) began the chase and joined Rutkiewicz at the bottom of the final climb. Soon after they were caught by the main bunch and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) decided to accelerate. When he went under the red triangle he was 15 seconds ahead of the pursuit. The young Dutch rider managed to maintain the lead and he crossed the line alone.

Michael Albasini (HTC Columbia) finished second 7 seconds behind and Grega Bole (Lampre Farnese Vini) was third. The leader of general classification, Daniel Martin (Garmin - Transitions) didn't give away the jersey and is very close to winning the 67th Tour de Pologne.