photo credits @ Tour de Pologne
Amidst rainy conditions and a crash marred peloton, Danny Van Poppel (Team Sky) claimed stage 5 of the Tour de Pologne today, after winning the sprint finale in Rzeszow ahead of Luka Mezgec (Orica-Scott) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Youcef Reguigui had launched an attack with one kilometer to go, but the Dimension Data rider was ultimately reined by Team Sky, who proceeded to move Van Poppel into perfect position to fend-off challenges from Mezgec and Sagan and seize the stage honors.
Meanwhile, Sagan once again earned enough time bonuses to extend his lead in the overall classification, while Dylan Teuns (BMC) trails the World Champion at 14 seconds back, followed by Rafal Majka in third place at a further 6 seconds back.
Race Highlights
A five-rider breakaway group containing Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing), Antwan Tolhoek (LottoNL-Jumbo), Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) and Moreno Moser (Astana), animated the start of today’s stage, after the quintet succeeded in riding clear during the opening kilometer of the race.
From there, the escapees went on to establish an advantage of around three minutes over the peloton.
Rain would later inundate the race, causing slippery conditions that saw Schachmann crash while taking the wrong line through a corner.
The final climb saw Van Garderen jettison his breakaway companions along the steep gradients.
The American rider later crested the summit alone, but at that point his lead had been reduced to a mere 15 seconds.
Despite a valiant effort to stay away, Van Garderen was eventually caught by the peloton with three kilometers remaining, setting the stage for an inevitable sprint finale.
Wout Poels led the race with under the two kilometers to go, followed by three other Team Sky riders, the last of whom was Danny Van Poppel with Sagan locked in his wheel.
At that point, things appeared to be shaping up for a bunch sprint, but with one kilometer remaining a crash near the front of the peloton caused a split in the group, leaving around ten riders at the front.
Lukasz Wisniowski was forced to do a long lead-out for Van Poppel, including chasing down a late attack from Reguigui, but was able to move the Dutch rider in the perfect position to seize the stage victory ahead of Mezgec and Sagan.
Top 20 Finishers
1 Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 2:59:44 2 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Orica-Scott 3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 4 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 6 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 7 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team 8 Jose Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 9 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Lotto Soudal 10 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) Team Sky 11 Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team 12 Youcef Reguigui (Alg) Dimension Data 13 Pawel Cieslik (Pol) Poland 14 Michal Golas (Pol) Team Sky 15 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 16 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Soudal 17 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 18 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 19 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team 20 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
General Classification After Stage 5
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 18:41:27 2 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:14 3 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:20 4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:24 5 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) FDJ 0:00:31 6 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:32 7 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:00:33 8 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:39 10 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team 11 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:42 12 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:44 13 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:47 14 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 15 Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 16 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team 0:01:02 17 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Lotto Soudal 0:01:05 18 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:01:10 19 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky 0:01:14 20 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:50
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