While Tinkoff-Saxo’s GC ambitions failed to materialize on stage 5 of Tour de Pologne, Columbian climber Edward Beltran gained ground in the fight for the mountains jersey after a day of more than 3,200 meters of altitude gain. Bart de Clercq took the win, while Chris Anker Sørensen finished 14th at the finish line. 

Team GC riders Robert Kiserlovski and Pawel Poljanski lost ground on the tough stage 5 of Tour de Pologne, where teammate Edward Beltran played a pivotal role in the breakaway and now trails by just two points in the mountain classification. Sports Director Bruno Cenghialta tells:

“It was a mixed day for us today at the Tour de Pologne. Beltran went into an early breakaway together with five more riders and managed to build an advantage of nearly 6 minutes. He was solo in the lead and grabbed a number of points on the climbs but is just short of a couple of points for the polka dot jersey. Tomorrow's stage has a lot of mountain point at stake and we will see whether he is successful in getting the jersey. It's one of his goals and his result today was a morale boost”, says Cenghialta before adding:

“For the rest, we had many attacks and counter attacks, which led to Chris-Anker Sørensen and Robert Kiserlovski being the only ones in the front group, while the rest of the squad was in the groups behind. Then, when the final selection was made, they were also dropped and we finished further back. It was a very hard stage today with more than 3,200 meters of altitude gain and we needed stronger legs”.

The 223km stage 5 presented the riders with undulating climbs in tough terrain, which will continue tomorrow, as the riders face the penultimate stage. Bruno Cenghialta eyes different opportunities:

“I feel positive about tomorrow. Poljanski is in good shape but due to a misjudgment he was dropped today. Together with Kiserlovski and Sørensen, we will try to initiate breakaways and put a hard fight in order to get a good result”, finishes Cenghialta.