Pologne (st. 5) / Burgos (st. 2)
Several crashes at Rzeszów's final circuit avoided by Movistar Team riders; Blues on the attack with Izagirre -now 10th overall- at Lany climb
A summer storm turned a much controlled stage, the fifth in the 2017 Tour de Pologne towards Szeszów (130km), into one difficult to keep together and full of crashes that even affected the final sprint. The Movistar Team, with Dowsett and Sutherland keeping the squad's climbers in good place before the final series of up-and-downs, shone with an acceleration by Gorka Izagirre into the Cat-2 Lany ascent, and got three of its members -Izagirre himself, Nelson Oliveira and José Joaquín Rojas- into the 50-rider group coming together at the line and reaching down the last survivor of the early break, Tejay Van Garderen (BMC).
At one of the turns into the final kilometer, a crash split the peloton and allowed José Joaquín Rojas fighting for the stage win, the Spaniard eventually taking 8th place. The selection into the hills makes Gorka Izagirre climb up the standings -he's now 10th in the GC, 39" behind Peter Sagan (BOH)- and also keeps Nelson Oliveira near the top guys (16th, 1'02" down) before the two decisive days in the Tatr mountains. Thursday will bring lots of little climbs -five of them rated- into the last 70km heading into Zakopane.
In turn, the Movistar Team went safe and sound -and even chased the late attacks with Richard Carapaz- through stage two of the Vuelta a Burgos, which Italian Matteo Trentin (QST) won in Belorado after 155km starting at Oña. No big GC changes, other than the ones resulting from the amount of positions after the two days -Barbero now sits in 8th, 7" away from Landa (SKY), with Dani Moreno in 16th-, were seen in the eve of the first big mountain stage. The bunch in Spain will tackle the new, grueling Picón Blanco (HC) at the end of a demanding, 173km trek with five other categorized ascents – which could make it even more significant than Neila's showdown on Saturday.
Results: Vuelta a Polonia | Vuelta a Burgos