Ahead of a key pair of hilly tests Team Sky kept their powder dry at the Tour of Poland as a breakaway claimed top honours on stage four.

The team finished safely in the bunch as the riders now turn their attention to the climbs and a pair of upcoming tests for which the squad is built around.

A three-man breakaway were the story of the day as Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) and Kamil Zielinski (Polish National) built out a mammoth gap of over 11 minutes on the road.

Team Sky hit the front to help ensure that dangerous margin was slashed, with Bodnar eventually taking the stage win just 20 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.

Zielinski held on for second and time bonuses allowed the Pole to secure a three-second lead over the day's winner.

Salvatore Puccio led Team Sky home and remained eighth overall, 28 seconds back and ensuring good car position for a series of key stages to come.

The closing kilometres saw a tense chase play out, with wet roads making the task even more difficult as Orica-GreenEdge shouldered the bulk of the pulling around the finishing circuits in Nowy Sacz.

Overnight leader Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) lost touch on the day's final climb and was forced to relinquish the yellow jersey.

After the stage Sports Director Dario Cioni shed some light on an interesting day as Team Sky had to step up in order to keep the race alive.

On the chase he explained: "The sprinter teams left it late and found out that no one really wanted to do the work. So they missed a big opportunity there as the break stayed away.

"We are here and as always we want to do well in the race. Obviously we're racing more for GC than stages, so to give away the race with an 11-minute gap to riders of that calibre - that would have been game over. So it was in our interest to not give away a podium place at the Tour of Poland and to leave the option for GC open and keep the battle alive. We were not so concerned about the stage and that is why we only pulled on the sections that worked for us. Philip (Deignan) did a good job there.

"In the end we had to sacrifice a couple of men to keep the options open for the next two days. Already today we saw a different, more difficult race to the last few days. The parcours was more difficult than it looked on paper and it was warm too before the cloud cover arrived.

"Tomorrow it gets even more difficult and it starts to be a course more for those who have got good legs, rather than those who can just stay in the peloton. Hopefully it will be more our type of race and we've got three or four riders who can do well. It should be an interesting day."