Belarusian takes biggest win of the season so far as sprinters still rule in Poland
Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) won the third stage of the Tour de Pologne, the Tour of Poland, between Sosnowiec and Katowice. The Belarusian outsprinted Argentinean Lucas Haedo (Saxo Bank) into second place, and Australian Allan Davis (Astana) into third at the end of the short, rolling 122.1km stage.
“This is my fourth victory this season after two stages atTour Méditerranèen and one at Circuit de Lorraine,” said Hutarovich after his victory. “It was a really fast final sprint, my computer was clocking a speed above 70 km/h. I didn’t realise I had won right away because Haedo was catching up with me on the other side of the road. I only thought about pushing my bike ahead with a last-ditch effort and waiting for the photo finish result.
“I’ve been the Belarus national champion twice,” he added, “but this is undoubtedly one of my most beautiful and most important wins. This is a ProTour race and I beat some of the strongest sprinters in the world.”
The stage’s main breakaway came from Sebastian Rosseler (RadioShack) and Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano); the two riders escaped the peloton after the first intermediate sprint at the 10.5km point. With the HTC-Columbia team of yesterdays stage winner André Greipel on the front of the peloton though, the
They were caught around 50km from the finish, on the third of seven 11.7km laps.
The capture of Rosseler and Geschke so far from the finish proved to be the catalyst for a number of counter moves. The first of these came from Team Sky duo Mathew Hayman and Ian Stannard, but they weren’t to get very far. The next move came from Jonas Ljungblad (OmegaPharma-Lotto), Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano).
This attack was also doomed to failure and the trio was soon caught.
Inside the final 20km an attack came in from three sprinters: Dominique Rollin (Cervélo TestTeam), Danilo Napolitano (Katusha) and Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre-Farnese Vini). They were joined by Greipel and Peter Velits (both HTC-Columbia) but, with the Astana team of race leader Davis pulling the peloton, they too were caught with around 10km to go.
The final, unsuccessful move came from Steve Hounard (Skil-Shimano) and Gianni Meersman (Française des Jeux) but they were caught in the final 5km and the sprinters moved into position.
Hutarovich hit the front early but Haedo was gaining on him right to the line and the two riders had to be separated by a photo finish.
Davis retains his lead in the overall standings and, thanks to time bonuses at the finish, is now 3 seconds ahead of Greipel and stage 1 winner Jacopo Guarnieri (Liquigas-Doimo); the three riders were tied on time after yesterday’s stage.
Result stage 3
1. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux
2. Lucas Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
3. Allan Davis (Aus) Team Astana
4. Tom Veelers (Ned) Skil-Shimano
5. Kenny Dehaes (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
6. Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step
7. Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil
8. Robert Förster (Ger) Team Milram
9. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
10. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team
Standings after stage 3
1. Allan Davis (Aus) Team Astana
2. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia @ 3s
3. Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 4s
4. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux
5. Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 8s