Martin Prevails for Garmin-Transitions in Poland
Irish rider Daniel Martin won Stage 5 of the Tour de Pologne on Thursday, claiming the yellow leader's jersey after a strong performance. He finished with a clear 20-second lead over German rider Grega Bole.
In Stage 5, the sprinters of the Tour had to give way to the climbers. General classification contenders were tipped to win the stage. The standings are therefore telling in terms of who may claim this year's overall victory.
Martin, who rides for Team Garmin-Transitions, now has a 14-second lead over Bole in the overall standings. After Thursday's win, many will expect him to wear the yellow jersey on the podium come Sunday.
"We managed to claim the jersey today and we will try to maintain it to the very end," Martin said after the stage. Martin now leads the points classification on 20 points, one point ahead of Bole.
Early Breakaways
Stage 5 was a handful even for the experienced climbers in the line-up. The stage, which brought the riders from Jastrzebie Zdroj to Ustron over 149km, contained five Category 1 climbs in a row.
Breakaways from the peloton were expected to be more successful than in the recent, flatter stages.
A few of those attacks came early on in the stage, but only after about 30km did a trio of riders manage to distinguish themselves.
Borut Bozic (Team Vacansoleil), Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Maciej Bodnar managed to gain a four-minute lead over the peloton after 80km.
But after 120km the peloton, led on by Team Lampre-Farnese Vini, caught up with the three riders.
At that point, the trio had been joined by Johnny Hoogerland (Team Vacansoleil), Martin Reimer (Cervelo TestTeam) and Mateusz Taciak (Team Poland BGZ) on their breakaway.
Thursday's Tough Climbs
During the stage's five ascents, Johnny Hoogerland (Team Vacansoleil), who made a bold but unsuccessful breakaway attempt during Stage 4, gained some vital points in the climbing classification.
After collecting two points in the first two climbs, Hoogerland claimed three in the third and ten in the fourth, bringing his total to 17 points.
Out of the three early escapees, Slovenian Bozic bagged a total of 32 climbing points, while Briton Swift finished on 22. Polish rider Bodnar collected 20 points.
At the start of the final 6km-climb, the peloton approached as one unit. Soon, though, attacks from Team Astana and Team Garmin-Transitions began to dominate proceedings.
Martin's Strong Finish
With 4km to go, Martin pounced on his team mates' hard work and broke free to win the stage. His team is in pole position going into Stage 6, but Martin recognizes the challenge ahead.
"We are aware that it's not going to be an easy job. There are many strong opponents who want that win as much as we do," he explained.
"One of them is Sylvester Szmyd, who showed today that he's feeling great on the climbs."
Polish rider Szmyd, riding for Team Liguigas-Doimo, finished third in the stage. He sits in fourth place overall, trailing Martin by 26 seconds. BMC Racing Team's Alessandro Ballan is third overall, 21 seconds behind the Irishman.
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