Tour of Poland

Stage 2: Rawa Mazowiecka-Dabrowa Górnicza, 240km/149mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a long, hot ride for the peloton in stage 2 of the Tour of Poland on Monday.  Spending a massive six hours in the saddle, two riders from a day-long break almost survived to the line, but were brought back in the last closing circuit to set up a group sprint.   German Andre Greipel (HTC-Columbia) pulled off the right barrier to shoot straight up the center of the course and take the win more than a bike length ahead of Allan Davis (Astana) and Wouter Weylandt of Quick Step.  Davis’ strong showing in both of the opening stages put him into the leader’s jersey with five stages to go. 

After the race Team Director Viatcheslav Ekimov checked in, saying “It was super hot out there today and a difficult day to do anything.  But we passed out 80 bottles of water today – even the director is cooked!  But everyone is doing fine.  Tomorrow’s stage is much shorter and doesn’t start until 4PM.”

A break of four riders went away early in the stage and included two Polish riders Marcin Sapa (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Bartlomiej Matysiak (Polska Bgz).  The foursome steadily built a gap that went to more than eleven minutes before the main field went to work to bring them back.   Liquigas tried to protect the race lead for yesterday’s winner  Jacopo Guarnieri, but received very little help from other teams.  At  60km to go the gap was down to seven minutes and continued to fall, but not so fast that a catch was a sure-thing. 

Sapa and Matysiak distanced their breakaway companions and held their gap to the peloton.  At 20km to go the duo only held one minute, the possibility to stay away dangling by a thread.  Once they hit the first of three closing circuits, the peloton closed in on the two riders and brought the group all together.

The sprinters teams ramped up the speed once the last two riders were swept up and the run to the line looked a little dicey with right and left turns along with barrier feet and cars in full site on the course, but everyone made it safely with no major crashes on Monday’s stage.   

The Tour of Poland continues on Tuesday.  Stage 3 is the shortest of the race at 122.1km/76mi from Sosnowiec to Katowice in a stage that features seven finishing laps in the arrival town.

Beyond the Finish Line:  The Pogoria sailing ship was built in 1979-80 in Gdansk and is often used as a training vessel. Trainees live in the 4, 8,10 and 12 persons cabins. They are divided into four watches of 8-10 each. Three of those do four hours on watch and eight off while the fourth one is the galley watch, helping the cook and keeping the ship tidy. Most of the watch time is spent on look-out, taking the helm, keeping the log and trimming sails. One doesn’t  have to go aloft, but most trainees do for the experience and thrill of handling square sails. The permanent crew consists of Chief Mate, Boatswain, Engineer, Motorman and Cook with voluntary Master and four mates. The usual trainee age is between 15 and 25.  In the summer Pogoria is a keen participant of the Tall Ships Races and other maritime events.

Top Ten Results

1              André Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia           6:02:52                   

2              Allan Davis (Aus) Astana                                

3              Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step                           

4              Christopher Sutton (Aus) Sky Professional Cycling Team                                 

5              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                     

6              Kenny De Haes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                           

7              Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank                      

8              Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team                           

9              Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française Des Jeux                         

10           Angelo Furlan (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini

Team RadioShack Results

20           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)

36           Daryl Impey (RSA)

40           Bjorn Selander (USA)

59           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

76           Tiago Machado (Por)

103         Ivan Rovny (Rus)

138         Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)

168         Ben Hermans (Bel)

General Classification after Stage 2

1              Allan Davis (Aus) Astana               10:08:14                

2              Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                     

3              André Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia                            

4              Aitor Galdos Alonso (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi      10:08:18                

5              Blazej Janiaczyk (Pol) Poland BGZ                              

6              Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team    10:08:19                

7              Bartlomiej Matysiak (Pol) Poland BGZ                      

8              Laszlo Bodrogi (Fra) Team Katusha                            

9              Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step          10:08:20                

10            Marcin Sapa (Pol) Lampre-Farnese Vini

Team RadioShack on General Classification

17           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) 10:08:24

29           Bjorn Selander (USA)

54           Daryl Impey (RSA)

59           Tiago Machado (Por)

63           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

65           Ivan Rovny (Rus)

121         Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)

157         Ben Hermans (Bel)