Colombian wins from breakaway after being hounded out of the leading move the previous day
Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) put the bitterness of the previous day behind him as he sprinted to a breakaway victory in the sixth stage of the 2013 Tour of Poland, between Bukovina Terma Hotel Spa and Bukowina Tatrzanska. The Colombian, who hd been hounded out of the leading group on stage five, due to his relatively high general classification position, the Colombian rider was accepted by the fugitives of stage six on the 192km hilly circuit stage.
Stage two winner Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) took second place, outsprinted by Atapuma after having done almost all of the work in the final two kilometres to maximise his gains overall, with Leopold König (NetApp-Endura) holding off the remains of the peloton to take third place 22 seconds later.
Starting the day just seven seconds behind yellow jersey Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), the time gap was enough to see Riblon take the overall race lead with just the final time trial stage to come.
"I'm very happy, it's a very special victory for me because it was the first one of the year and the team's first WorldTour,” said Atapuma. “We've been going for it since day one.
“Yesterday I gave it a go,” he said of his ill-fated attempt to be part of the stage five break. “Today I felt good and with the work of the team we did well and I kept my strength to pull through the final. When Riblon came up from behind he was very strong. I had legs to bust the sprint, I knew that he could take the leadership and I could have the stage.
“In the final I didn't help him because I was really tired but I went for the sprint and I won,” Atapuma explained. “I'm happy because we fought hard all year; it's been really hard but we haven't managed to win. At the Giro we didn't win one stage and I'm happy to have finally done so in this great race."
The first break of the day saw Atapuma escape from a group of 32 riders with Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp-Endura), Bertjan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DMC) and Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Polsat Polkowice), and the four-man group managed to get three minutes clear. As this break was pulled back in mid-stage, however, the Colombian managed to get away again, with Chernetskiy, Konig, Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat-Polkowice), Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard), Michal Golas (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp), Ivan Santaromita (BMC Racing) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida).
Attacks on the hilly circuit saw König, Kiserlovski and Santaromita escape, to be joined by Howes, Golas and Atapuma, with Chernetskiy fighting his way back up with just over 15km to go.
Just as the Russian made it up to the group, Atapuma jumped clear on the steepest part of the 1st category climb to Gliczarów Górny. He was quickly joined by Chernetskiy and they worked together to hold off the rest of the group as they approached the finish.
Riblon had meanwhile attacked from the peloton, and made it across to the chasing breakaway riders, then jumped across to Atapuma, who had left Chernetskiy behind with two kilometres to go. The Frenchman was more concerned with time in the general classification than the stage victory, and Atapuma was happy to let him lead all the way to the finishing straight, where he took an easy sprint for the victory.
Result stage 6
1. Darwin Atapuma (Col) Colombia
2. Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
3. Leopold König (Cze) @ 22s
4. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida
5. Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff
6. Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge
7. Ion Izagirre (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
8. Sergio Henao (Col) Sky Procycling
9. Ivan Santaromita (Ita) BMC Racing Team
10. Jose Serpa (Col) Lampre-Merida
Standings after stage 6
1. Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
2. Ion Izagirre (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 19s
3. Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 20s
4. Sergio Henao (Col) Sky Procycling @ 24s
5. Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge @ 27s
6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale @ 33s
7. Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar Team
8. Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) RadioShack-Leopard @ 36s
9. Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling @ 40s
10. Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 41s