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Tour de Pologne 2013: Stage 3

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Stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne, 226km from Kraków to Rzeszów.

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Aleksandr Dyachenko is the best-placed man on general classification in the day’s break and he began this race as Astana’s principal overall hope. The Kazakh lies over 33 minutes down in 62nd place, however, hence the lack of urgency in Saxo-Tinkoff’s commitment to the pursuit.

The Tour of Poland's novel Italian start saw some substantial gaps open over two tough days in Trentino, but things remain tightly locked at the top of the overall standings, where Rafal Majka leads Sergio Henao (Sky) by just 4 seconds, with Christophe Riblon (Ag2r-La Mondiale) - tamer of Alpe-d'Huez and the mighty Passo Pordoi - third at 6 seconds.

General classification after stage 2:

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In theory, today's stage ought to be one for the sprinters, with the category 3 climb at Lubenia with 35km to go the only real obstacle in the finale. But with teams limited to just six riders apiece, pegging back the break's lead may not prove as straightforward as it seems.

Extreme heat greeted the peloton when it arrived in Krakow on Monday’s rest day. Temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius in the afternoon but overnight, there was a welcome change in conditions. The peloton set out from Krakow this afternoon under leaden skies and a steady drizzle, with temperatures down 20 degrees or so.

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) capped his Giro d’Italia victory in May with a snowbound stage win at Tre Cime di Lavaredo but his return to the Dolomites at the weekend could scarcely have been more different, as he lost over half and hour in the Tour of Poland’s opening exchanges.

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BMC have a lot of horse power in their ranks at this Tour of Poland, and Marco Pinotti is putting in a huge turn on the front of the peloton. At the top of the climb, the gap between the break and the peloton has fallen to 2:50.

The earlier rain has subsided on the run-in to Rzeszów, but there are still menacing, leaden skies overhead.

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Marco Pinotti has put in a fine afternoon's work in support of Thor Hushovd. The Italian missed out on the Giro d'Italia this season due to injury but he is now building carefully towards the world time trial championships in Florence.

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The peloton passes through the same point 1:28 down on the break and remains on target to reel in the four escapees just before the finish. A sizeable Cannondale delegation is near the front looking to keep Ivan Basso out of trouble.

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The bunch comes through just 27 seconds later, and it looks if the peloton's pursuit has been a well-timed one.

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A huge turn from Taylor Phinney seals the break's fate as Ag2r join him at the head of the bunch.

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Taylor Phinney puts in another big turn at the front and then Mark Renshaw opens the sprint on the final, gentle right-hand bend...

Thor Hushovd (BMC) comes through to take the win, ahead of Steel Von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) and Renshaw.

Hushovd was canny in placing himself on Renshaw's wheel and he had the power to come around in the finale to claim the win. He can be grateful, too, to Taylor Phinney, who kept the pace high inside the final 400 metres to set up the sprint.

Brief results:

General classification after stage 3:

1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 11:04:43
2 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col) Sky Procycling 0:00:04
3 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:06
4 Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica-GreenEdge 0:00:07
5 Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:00:09
6 Chris Anker Sörensen (Den) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:00:09
7 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Movistar Team 0:00:13
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:13
9 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) RadioShack Leopard 0:00:16
10 Thomas Rohregger (Aut) RadioShack Leopard 0:00:18

Thanks for joining us on Cyclingnews for today's coverage of the Tour of Poland. We'll have a full report, results and pictures here shortly, and we'll be back on Wednesday with more live coverage from stage 4 between Tarnów and Katowice.

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