Tour de Pologne (st. 2)

Ventoso cut by pile-up in the first of three local laps in Opole following a mechanical failure, unable to contest first bunch sprint in Poland, won by Swift (SKY). Visconti still in 9th overall

The paved section of the three laps around Opole, the final point of a long stage two in the 69th Tour de Pologne -239k starting at Walbrzych-, avoided Spanish road champion Fran Ventoso contesting the bunch sprint won by Brit Ben Swift (SKY). The Cantabrian, already falling yesterday on stage one with no consequences, did not crash today but was caught into the pile-up breaking the bunch into two echelons at the first lap, just after suffering a mechanical failure in the first passage through the cobbles. Ventoso and his team-mates -with Visconti (9th in the GC), Pardilla, Moreno and Samoilau still 10 seconds behind yellow jersey Moreno Moser (LIQ)- will have another try on Thursday with the tortuous finish in Cieszyn, after a loop between Poland and the Czech Republic where the cobblestones and the complicated final kilometer -with the last turn just 100m from the finish- will make things harder for the sprinters.

Photo (c): S. Gruchalski