The Gorilla takes his second stage of the race as a young Irishman confirms his talent
André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) won the seventh and final stage of the Tour of Poland, between Nowy Targ and Kraków in a bunch sprint. The big German “Gorilla” took his second stage of this year’s race ahead of stage 3 winner Yauheni Hutarorvich (FDJ) and Robert Förster (Milram).
“I knew the finish from last year, which was a help,” said Greipel afterwards, “and that it was better to wait as long as possible to start my last acceleration because my back wheel could have slipped a bit in the wet conditions. But my teammates did a great job, too, getting me right up there so I was in the perfect position to go for the win.
“It’s a wonderful victory to have today as well, my sister has just had a daughter and I want to dedicate it to them,” he added.
The 163.9km stage was dominated once again by a breakaway, which escaped in the early kilometres. Angel Madrazo (Caisse d’Epargne), Roy Curvers (Skil-Shimano) and Polish champion Jacek Morajko (Polska BGZ) managed to get a lead of 5 minutes over the peloton, but as they neared the three 4km finishing circuits they were steadily hauled back.
With only an 8 second lead over Grega Bole (Liquigas-Doimo), race leader Dan Martin (Garmin-Transitions) was happy to allow the trio to stay away and pick up the bonus seconds at the two late intermediate sprints.
A last ditch attempt to stay away from Madrazo was ultimately unsuccessful and he was recaptured by the peloton; Griepel proved to be the fastest on the wet finishing straight, ahead of Hutarovich and Förster.
With the peloton finishing together, and with none of his rivals able to pick up any time bonuses, Martin won the 2010 Tour de Pologne, the biggest victory of the 23-year-old Irishman’s career to date.
“In terms of sports this is the best day of my life,” said Martin, “We fought until the very last metre. It was a challenging stage; that the rain made even more difficult. I want to thank Murilo Fischer who guided me wonderfully in the final part, during the last few kilometres. This was an important win for my team, too, seeing as this is a Pro Tour race.
“I will try not to party too much tonight because I want to stay focused on the next few races,” he added, “the GP Plouay and the Giro di Lombardia, as those are my two final big objectives for this season.”
Result stage 7
1. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ
3. Robert Förster (Ger) Team Milram
4. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
5. Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step
6. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team
7. Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R-La Mondiale
8. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky
9. Allan Davis (Aus) Team Astana
10. David Vitoria (Swi) Footon-Servetto
Final overall standings
1. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Transitions
2. Grega Bole (Slo) Liquigas-Doimo @ 8s
3. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank @ 10s
4. Michael Albasini (Swi) HTC-Columbia @ 20s
5. Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing @ 21s