Tour de Pologne (st. 6)

Italian survives into elite group after hellish final mountain stage in Poland, tackles ITT showdown to Kraków in 7th place, 33 seconds behind Riblon (ALM)

It was an exhausting effort for Movistar Team and all riders participating in the penultimate stage of the 2013 Tour de Pologne, a 192km trek with three rated climbs -Zab, Gliczarów and the final ascent into Bukowina Tatrzanska- and more than 4,000 meters of vertical drop. Colombia’s Darwin Atapuma grabbed the victory after making part of a huge, 32-man early breakway with three riders from the telephone squad: Ángel Madrazo, Sylwester Szmyd -who tried to go solo halfway through the race- and Giovanni Visconti, who sacrificed himself for Eros Capecchi into the final lap after getting dropped.

The Italian proved to be up for offensive tactics to climb up the standings and jumped into the last uphill towards Zab, 20km from the finish, with the leaders still more than one minute ahead. The work from the main favourites took the GC rider from Movistar Team to one hundred meters behind Atapuma, chased down by Riblon (ALM) as the duo took turns in the final climb to increase their advantage to 22 seconds. Capecchi, who crossed the line with race the race leader in a brave effort, stays in 7th place overall, thirty-three seconds off Riblon and just thirteen behind Majka (TST), now completing the podium in 3rd, with a 37k TTT to Kraków set to decide the final result in Capecchi’s best race since joining the Blue squad.