Julian Arredondo as expectd to shine in the Tour de Pologne mountain stages but the Colombian never played much of a role in the race. Today he lost more than 20 minutes, with his team claiming that he failed to recover from yesterday's efforts.

The 174-kilometer stage six profile looked cruel, and as tough as it appeared on paper, it was even more punishing out on the road.

Trek Factory Racing was not at their best on a day that required top form. Although the team gave its best, they were not in the game, and the decision was taken to ease back the throttle to save what energy they could for the final time trial stage tomorrow.

“It was a really, really hard day," sports director Adriano Baffi said. "There were many riders who stopped today and we also had two stop from fatigue: Silvestre and Beppu. Julian [Arredondo] did not have a good day, and he was the only one who could do something for us today. When we saw that it was not possible to win the stage with him, the team eased back and tried to do a bit less - which on this course was not really easy to do -  to save for tomorrow.

"Yesterday Arredondo had the legs to try and fight for the win, but today his legs were not there. He never recovered from the hard course of yesterday. Today was a course where you absolutely had to have good legs. He gave all he could and was there for the first two laps.”

With the GC out of reach for Trek Factory Racing their sight is set on a podium finish in the flat race against the clock for the final day.

“We will see what happens tomorrow," Baffi said. "We also have to be realistic, the level has been very high here; of course we will try to be on the podium, same as every day we have tried, but the last few days have been very difficult, and we are not in our top form.

Whatever happens, overall the racing has been good, and we are coming out of it stronger, which bodes well for the next races.”