Marcel Kittel wins seventh stage as Peter Sagan takes overall lead in Tour of Pologne 2011
Skil-Shimano team’s Marcel Kittel took his fourth stage win after he won the seventh and final stage of Tour de Pologne 2011 in Krakow on Saturday, August 6. Peter Sagan took overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The 23-year-old German racing cyclists took the total of 2 hours, 50 minutes to cover the distance of 128 kilometres while the race leader’s Sagan was in second spot with same timing of Kittel.
After winning the stage, Kittel told the media, "The sprint was very fast today although you could see everyone was tired. Sagan really wanted the final victory, his team led the peloton, and it was very good for us. I just have to keep my position.”
Leigh Howard was in third place while Heinrich Howard who had faces a crash in the intermediate sprint, failed to hold his pace and managed to grab fourth place.
A group of ten cyclists made their first breakaway and took a lead but the peloton caught them back. With 27 kilometres to go, the intermediate sprint was placed and all the cyclists knew it would play an enormous part in the race.
When the race entered in Rynek Starego Miasta, Sagan and Haussler was close behind with each other. Before the line, Sagan was squeezing him, touching the barriers going through the last turn. After the conclusion Haussler relegated this action however,
the result had stood, with Sagan gaining two seconds time bonus and Haussler took three seconds respectively.
In the final circuit, Sagan increased his pace and managed to gain 10, 6 and 4 seconds time bonus to prove fastest in the stage. After the crash in final lap the two cyclists Nelson Oliveira and Polish national champion Tomasz Marczynski got away but they
were chased down by the other sprinter’s team.
However, Skil-Shimano managed to control the situation and Kittel showed a tremendous effort as he managed to cross the finish line ahead of the other riders.
Liquigas-Cannondale team’s Sagan took the overall standing with the timing of 26 hours, 40 minutes. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) was in second spot 6 seconds behind Sagan.
Martin said, “Today the tactic was to cross my fingers and hope three people would beat Sagan in the sprints. I did the best I could and I was even involved in the bonus sprint! Heinrich [Haussler] and the team did great work, too."
Marco Marcato of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling finished third with the difference of 7 seconds ahead of Wout Poels and Peter Kennaugh. Stage winner Kittel was in 129th place with a difference of 59 minutes and 18 seconds.
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