Izagirre takes overall victory at Tour de Pologne

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Ion Izagirre (Movistar) jumped from sixth to first on the final day of racing at the Tour de Pologne after an impressive performance in the time trial. He took the overall race victory by two seconds over Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Soudal). Poland’s Marcin Białobłocki took the stage victory four seconds ahead of Team Sky’s Vasil Kiryienka.

Yellow jersey Sergio Henao dropped from first down to eighth overall after struggling in the time trial.

It was all still to play for going into the final stage with only 27 seconds separating the top 10 in the overall classification and the almost entirely flat final 25-kilometre time trial would be the deciding factor. After winning the penultimate stage to Bukowina Tatrzanska, Henao held a slim lead in the overall classification. He would have to wait for 112 riders to take their turn before he had a chance to set his time on the course.

Rick Flens (LottoNL-Jumbo) set the early pace on the out-and-back course with a time of 29:44. He had just half an hour to enjoy his time at the top before Białobłocki came through to beat it. There was some confusion later on when Kiryienka appeared to have beaten the home rider’s performance with his time of 28:47 but some hasty checking of the times saw Białobłocki jump back up to first a little while later. He would stay there as the GC hopefuls did battle at the end of the day.

Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) was the rabbit, the first of the top 10 riders to hit the road, and he set the bar high. His time of 30:10 was enough to put him into the top 10 on the stage and within a shout of the overall victory. The following riders couldn’t match his pace but his dream of victory quickly slipped away when Izagirre came off the ramp and set the fastest time of the GC riders at the halfway point. The Movistar rider would finish a mere second ahead of the Russian on the stage but a 12-second advantage at the top of the day would ensure his place at the top of the standings.

It would be a nervous wait for Izagirre as the remaining five riders put in their times. Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) and Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Garmin) put themselves out of contention, giving away a bucketful of seconds early on. There was still the concern of Ben Hermans (BMC) and De Clercq, though. Hermans hit the line first but lost three seconds to Izagirre, it was even closer for De Clercq who managed to get within two seconds of the Spaniard.

Only Henao remained out on the road but he had lost so much time at the intermediate check that his challenge was all but done. He would eventually finish with the slowest time of anyone in the overall top 10, stopping the clock at 31:17, and slipped down to eighth in the general classification.

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