Having crashed hard in stage 1, Luka Mezgec has decided to leave the Tour de Pologne which goes into the mountains in today's stage. With no more sprint opportunities, the Slovenian prefers to recover for next week's Eneco Tour where he is set to be the Giant-Shimano main sprinter.

Luka Mezgec will not start tomorrow’s fifth stage of the Tour of Poland in order to recover from his crash on stage one. Mezgec came down hard in the finishing sprint, hitting the barriers and sustaining bruising to his arm and side, but he was able to start the following day.

He went on to take second on stage three and third on stage four but the team, together with Mezgec , have decided that he will return home to fully recover from the injuries sustained.

Team Giant-Shimano coach at the Tour of Poland, Addy Engels said: “After two decent sprints in the last few days we have decided that Luka should return home to recover properly from his fall on stage one. There will be little respite over the next few days in the hills here so together with the team’s medical expert we have decided that he should stop after today. We will monitor his recovery and hopefully he will be good to start the Eneco Tour next week.”

Mezgec added: “Although in the sprints I can block out the pain I have been feeling it in my arm and side during the last few stages and getting through the mountains will be difficult with this. It is disappointing to be leaving the team in Poland but I wish them good luck for the next few days.”