Three wins in three days for BMC in Poland
Hushovd claims another victory with stage 5
Thor Hushovd claimed his second win at the Tour of Poland on Thursday, BMC's third-straight win at the race after Taylor Phinney claimed his first individual pro victory on Wednesday.
BMC appear a very different outfit in Poland to what they did last month at the Tour de France and seem to be on a roll with Hushovd saying following his latest victory that the team was riding without pressure.
On Thursday's fifth stage, BMC's chances for the win were bolstered by having Mathias Frank in the early breakaway, before eventually being reeled in with 26km remaining. When six riders escaped with 19km to go, Marco Pinotti and Phinney led the chase. Pinotti later revealed on twitter that he had used the John F. Kennedy quote as the basis to motivate his teammates.
"Today at breakfast I 'quoted' JFK: don't ask what the team can do for you but what you can do for the team. Another great day @BMCProTeam," the Italian wrote on his feed.
Ivan Santaromita, then dragged Hushovd up the final climb of the day before delivering the former World Champion and current Norwegian Champion to the final kilometre.
"For sure, the sprint was a perfect one for me," Hushovd said. "I knew if the group came back, I would have a good chance. The last climb was hard, but the team did a good job and everyone was working well together like we have been the whole race."
BMC has now equalled the record set last month when Hushovd and Frank netted three in-a-row at the Tour of Austria. It was also the team's sixth win in the past 11 days, a stretch that includes three victories last week by Greg Van Avermaet at the Tour de Wallonie.
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"We are a really good group here," Hushovd, who also took the lead in the points classification said. "We are enjoying racing together and when the ball first starts rolling, it doesn't stop and everything goes well. We don't have any pressure. We just do our jobs and the rest comes along."