After Warsaw the Tour de Pologne is heading south. The second day of the Polish stage race is a classic flat stage, in which sprinters should play the main role. The riders will start from Tarnowskie Gory and will ride south, discovering the lovely scenery of Upper Silesia. Along the way, they will compete for three sprint primes in Piekary Slaskie, Chorzów and Siemianowice Slaskie, and a Special Prime in Bytom. In Katowice, there are two mountain primes. There too, fans can expect a thrilling finish at the Spodek Arena, where the riders will be hitting 80 km/h. After all, Katowice is the cycling world’s sprint Mecca. In 2015 Matteo Pelucchi made his mark at this finish line; in 2014 it was Belgian Jonas Van Genechten and before that Taylor Phinney, Aidis Kruopis and Marcel Kittel all dominated the final straight sprint in Katowice, always at an electrifying pace. There are sure to be plenty of spectacular adrenaline thrills in Katowice with the Tour de Pologne.
Note that today all the Italian riders at the Tour de Pologne came to starting line wearing mourning bands on their arms to commemorate the victims of the terrible train accident in Puglia yesterday. Before the start the entire pack observed a minute of silence.
REPORT:
Yesterday’s stage winner: Davide Martinelli (Etixx – Quick-Step)
Top 5 general classification (yellow Skandia jersey)
1) Martinelli Davide (Etixx – Quick-Step)103:01:00
2) Gaviria Fernando (Etixx – Quick-Step) 0:04
3) Ewan Caleb (ORICA-BikeExchange) 0:06
4) Stybar Zdenek (Etixx – Quick-Step) 0:10
5) Hofland Moreno (Team LottoNL – Jumbo) “
Tauron cyclamen jersey: Jaroslaw Marycz (Pol), CCC Sprandi Polkowice
(GPM classification)
Hyundai white jersey: Davide Martinelli (Ita), Etixx – Quick-Step
(points classification)
Lotto blue jersey: Marc Fournier (Fra), Fdj
(classification for most active rider in the group)
Team classification: Etixx – Quick-Step
Riders in race: 199
Didn’t start: nr. 216 Nicolas Lefrancois (Team Novo Nordisk)
Photo © Ilario Biondi
Source: Lang Team
