CCC Polsat animated yesterday's stage of the Volta a Catalunya when the team had both Tomasz Marczynski and Marek Rutkiewicz in the early breakaway. In the end they left the stage empty-handed but the aggressive performance set Marczynski up for an attack on the mountains jersey.

When the wildcards for this year's Volta a Catalunya were announced, many were surprised to see the Polish CCC Polsat team being included on the list. After a rather anonymous showing on the opening stage, the team started to pay back the favour when they animated yesterday's stage.

The team put two of its strong climbers Tomasz Marczynski and Marek Rutkiewicz in the early 6-rider breakaway that dominated much of the wet stage. They didn't have the strength to match Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) when he took off near the end but by scoring 16 points for the mountains classification, Marczynski set himself up for a possible stint in the red jersey.

Marczynski is a strong climber who finished 13th in the 2012 Vuelta and has twice won the Tour de Pologne mountains jersey. He has set his sights on the win in that classification in the Spanish race.

"Today's stage was good," he said.  "If you are already on the attack, it's worth to have something to fight for. I managed to win the mountain sprints and collect some points for the mountains classification. I must admit that I would still try to escape in other stages to fight for the KOM jersey. Until then I will relax. Tomorrow I will consider what to do next."

Rutkiewicz was the first rider from the break to get caught.

"In the first stage, we didn't do too well," he said. "We didn't stay aware from the start and we missed the break. Today there was a third category climb from the start. We knew it would be hard, but we attacked, and I think we made up for yesterday. 

"The cooperation in the escape was okay. In the end, I was a little cold and had a little bit of a hunger knock and my lights went out. This is only my second stage race of the season, but I think overall it was OK. 

"The weather destroyed it for us. If it had not been raining, we could have come closer with this attack. I don't claim that we would have stayed away, but we would certainly have been caught closer to the finish line."

In the end, the team got a nice top 10 result when Maciej Paterski sprinted to 10th. Sports director Piotr Wadecki was pleased with the performance.

"In this stage, the riders did what I had told them to do in the technical briefing before the start," he said. "It's a shame that we could not stay away to the finish but I enjoyed to see a better performance from the riders. I also want to emphasize the good Maciej Paterski who finished 10th on the stage."

Today the race heads into the mountains where the team will focus on their Italian captain Davide Rebellin.

You can read our preview of stage three here and follow our live coverage at 15.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.