Mollema Wins Stage 6 in Poland
On Friday, Team Rabobank's Bauke Mollema won Stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne, claiming his first ever stage win at 23 years of age.
The Dutchman finished seven seconds ahead of Swiss rider Michael Albasini (Team HTC-Columbia) in second place and Slovenian Grega Bole (Team Lampre-Farnese Vini) in third.
"It's a great feeling to win a stage in a ProTour race," Mollema said after the race.
"It's a special day for me because it's the first victory in my professional career. The course was really hard, with a few very steep hills. It was definitely not easy to be the first one to cross the line today."
With five Category 1 climbs, Thursday's Stage 5 was said to be a challenge for the riders of this year's Tour. On Friday, though, the riders face six such climbs over 228 km between Oswiecim and Terma.
The route stopped by former World War II concentration camp Auschwitz, where the riders partook in a minute's silence to commemorate the Holocaust victims who perished there.
After that brief respite, the riders were back on track. As on Thursday, the climbers and general classification contenders were the ones who were able to pounce on the difficult route chosen by the organizers.
Breakaways and Climbs
After some heavy rain and a crash that involved over a dozen Tour participants, a group of riders managed to break free from the peloton.
That group included Mikhaylo Khalilov (Team Katusha), Gorka Izagirre and Javier Aramandia (both with Team Euskaltel – Euskadi), Matthew Hayman (Team Sky) and Johnny Hoogerland (Team Vacansoleil).
As expected, Hoogerland did well in the climbs, winning the first three and collecting a total of 44 points.
By the bottom of the first climb, the peloton had reduced the group's lead from eight to four minutes. After 205km and a few more unsuccessful breakaway attempts, Team Garmin-Transitions decided the fun was over and led the peloton to catch up with the escapees.
Mollema's Finish
Going into the final ascent with 4km to the finish line, Marco Marcato (Team Vacansoleil), Vladimi Gusev (Team Katusha) and Assan Bazayev (Team Astana) began to chase Poland's Marek Rutkiewicz, who had broken free earlier.
By the final climb, the quartet were joined by the peloton and Mollema timed his finish to perfection on the incline.
Irish rider Daniel Martin retains the general classification lead, and many tip him to top the overall standings by the end of the Tour.
"It was an amazing, hard and challenging stage," said Martin, who dedicated the win to the hard work of his team mates.
"On the final climb there were only two guys from my team left. We had to answer almost every attack but we managed to control the race."
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