Pieter Weening went into the Tour de Pologne with big hopes of defending last year's victory but today his ambitions were crushed in the hardest stage of the race. Having lost more than 6 minutes, the Dutchman is not out of GC contention.

The final classified climb of a brutal stage six has ended the chances of a title defence for Pieter Weening at the Tour of Poland today.

Sitting with the general classification contenders for the first seven climbs of the 174km penultimate day, Weening fell victim to the fierce pace set by stage winner Rafal Majka (TSB) on the final climb that featured a maximum incline of 22%. 

Weening crossed the line in 39th position, 6minutes 43seconds behind Majka.

“When the attacks were coming on the steep climb he just didn’t have anything in the legs,” sport director David McPartland said.

“It’s disappointing but we had a plan and we stuck to the plan. You win some and you lose some. You lose more than you win but we gave it a crack.

“Yesterday Pieter (Weening) was feeling super, but it was not such a good day today. It counted yesterday, but it also counted today, you needed two good days in a row unfortunately.”

Earlier in the stage, Canadian Christian Meier featured in the main breakaway for the second consecutive day.  The eight-man escape group distanced themselves ahead of the first categorised climb with the final survivors caught 23km from the finish.

“The plan for us was to try and look after Pieter as much a possible,” McPartland said.

“Again it wasn’t super complicated. He only needed one guy there because the course was so hard and the group so selective, it actually came down to a race of attrition.

“In that case we could afford to have one up the road in the break in case Pieter came across in a group later on in the race and was isolated.

“That’s exactly what happened with Christian Meier and he did a good job. He has come out of the Tour de France really well.

“Then it was just a case of waiting until it came back and as soon as it did in the last lap that is when the true race for GC (general classification) was on. At that critical moment Pieter just didn’t have it in his legs. It was just one of those days.”