Tinkoff-Saxo’s Pawel Poljanski finished 4th on the first mountain stage of Tour of Austria with an uphill finish to 1650m. The young talent withstood multiple attacks before he had to let go just before the finish line, where he was 13 seconds off stage winner De La Parte. 
 
Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Bruno Cenghialta notes that he is satisfied with the team effort, where also Robert Kiserlovski and Chris Anker Sørensen finished among the contenders as 13th and 14th on the mountainous stage 4.
 
“Pawel Poljanski rode a very good stage today and he showed good shape on the climb. In the final part of the stage we had a long climb with the finish line on top and this is where the stage was decided. We stayed together in the group until the last 3 kilometers, where the attacks came. Chris Anker had worked a lot and he had been pulling really hard to take back the breakaway. Kiserlovski had a bad day on the last two kilometers and he lost a bit of time. Fortunately, Poljanski was really good, as it was a very hard finale, because of the constant attacks”, says Bruno Cenghialta.

Pawel Poljanski sits 6th in the GC after stage 4, 23 seconds behind race leader Jan Hirt (CCC) but, according to Cenghialta, a lot can still change on stage 6, as the riders face the climb up the mighty Grossglockner followed by the steep uphill finish to Kitzbühler Horn.
 
“Now we will think about the sixth stage with Grossglockner and Kitzbühler Horn and try to save energy for this very hard stage. Poljanski is sixth in the GC but Chris Anker and Kiserlovski are not that far away considering the difficulty of the stage. We will work for Kiserlovski, Poljanski and Chris Anker and then we will see who has the best legs during the stage. Naturally it’s better to have two or three riders that can play a role in the GC than just one”, finishes Bruno Cenghialta.