Astana was riding in support of Francesco Gavazzi in today's first mountain stage of the Tour de Pologne and the Italian was looking good in the finale. However, bad luck almost brought him down in a crash and so the Kazakh team left the stage empty-handed.

Astana was hoping that Francesco Gavazzi would be able to shine in today's mountain stage of the Tour de Pologne. With the stage likely to be decided in an uphill sprint, it suited the fast Italian perfectly and Fabio Aru and Enrico Gasparotto did their best to set up their captain.

However, Gavazzi hit the barrier in the finale and so lost his chance to sprint for the victory. Enrico Gasparotto finished first among his teammates – 17 seconds behind stage winner Rafal Majka of Poland – but Gavazzi was further back and not too happy with a time loss1:04 to the winner.

“Aru and Gaspa worked full gas," sports director Dmitri Sedoun said. "In a curve to the left an attack in the final kilometer sent Gavazzi into the fence."

Paolo Tiralongo withdrew from competition on Thursday after two painful days with lower back inflammation following a crash during the first stage. The Italian veteran will recover to try and be fully ready for his next start at the Vuelta.