Tour of Poland

Stage 4:  Tychy to Cieszyn, 177.9km/110mi

By Cathy Mehl

Day four at the Tour of Poland brought a new rider to the leader’s jersey with Italian Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre-Farnese Vini) taking the stage victory with enough time to move him into the yellow jersey as well with three stages remaining to race.  A technical run to the line over a slightly uphill, cobbled course saw Lorenzetto with the hole shot around the final turn.  His eagerness almost put his teammate Grego Bole into the barrier, but he stayed upright to take second on the stage, followed by defending champion Alessandro Ballan of BMC Racing Team.

Team Director Viatcheslav Ekimov commented after the stage, saying, “This wasn’t an easy stage, but we had five riders in the front group. The local laps were epic with a typical Italian finish up to a citadel on cobbled pavement.  It’s no surprise that Italians took 1-2-3.”  Regarding tomorrow’s stage, Eki continued, “Our team leaders look good.  Tomorrow is another very hard stage.  We hope it will give us a clearer picture of where we are.  Everyone came in safe and we didn’t have any bad luck today.”

It took more than 50km for the field of 182 riders to let a break go up the road, but finally Dominque Rollin (cervelo Test Team), Johnny Hoogerland  (Vacansoleil) and Christian Meier (Garmin) escaped off the front and distanced the main field.  Rollin was eventually dropped but the remaining two built a gap of more than 6 minutes.  Euskatel-Euskadi did a lot of work at the front as did Astana to protect former race leader Allan Davis, and their efforts paid off as the gap began to plunge.   By 40km to go their advantage was 3:20 and falling fast.

Hoogerland was solo by the time he entered the first of three 6.8km closing circuits, but soon he was brought back, setting up another strong attack by Jaroslaw Marycz (Saxo Bank) and Marco Marcato of Vacansoleil.  Marcato distanced his companion and flew solo to cross the finish line with a celebratory display only to be told there was one lap to go.  With the main field just behind him, Marcato was finished for the day, the victory playing out in his head alone while the final lap continued.    Fast speeds at the front split the field with the two Lampre riders hitting the turn first and holding their positions to the finish line that was located almost immediately after the left-hander. 

Thursday’s  course keeps the peloton climbing with five category 1 climbs to tackle on 149km from Astrzebie Zdroj to Ustron. 

Beyond the Finish Line:   Cieszyn sits on the border of Poland and Czechoslovakia.  The town combines both Polish and Austrian features  in the style of its buildings. Because of several major fires and subsequent reconstructions (the last one in the late 18th century), the picturesque old town is sometimes called Little Vienna. The only relic of the ancient castle is a square tower, dating from the 12th century and 10th century Romanesque chapel.

Top Ten Results

1              Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini        4:07:36                   

2              Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini                     

3              Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing Team                               

4              Simon Geschke (Ger) Skil - Shimano                         

5              Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                            

6              Michael Albasini (Swi) Team HTC - Columbia                         

7              Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Professional Cycling Team                     

8              Martin Pedersen (Den) Footon-Servetto                               

9              Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                          

10            Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Poland BGZ

12           Daryl Impey (RSA)

34           Tiago Machado (Por)

46           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)

55           Ben Hermans (Bel)

63           Ivan Rovny (Rus) 0:00:31

134         Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:09:39

137         Bjorn Selander (USA)

160         Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

General Classification after Stage 4

1              Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini        17:00:51                

2              Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini    0:00:07  

3              Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing Team              0:00:08  

4              Simon Geschke (Ger) Skil - Shimano        0:00:10  

5              Kenny De Haes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto          0:00:14  

6              Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne         0:00:15  

7              Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                            

8              Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Professional Cycling Team                     

9              Paul Voss (Ger) Team Milram                      

10           Michael Albasini (Swi) Team HTC - Columbia

Team RadioShack on General Classification

14           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn ) 0:00:17

18           Daryl Impey (RSA)

27           Tiago Machado (Por)

54           Ben Hermans (Bel)

69           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:00:44

132         Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:09:50

145         Bjorn Selander (USA)

152         Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)