Having had a crash-marred start to the race, Trek used today's second stage of the Tour de Pologne to recover. With neo-pro Fabio Silvestre being their only sprinter, the American team didn't feel obliged to chase behind lone escapee Petr Vakoc.

Today was a chance for stage one to be replayed. The same distance: 226 kilometers. Sunny, hot weather to start. Flat parcours. But this time no storm moved in, no wet and treacherous roads – the scene was set for another predicted and expected bunch sprint but this time sans crashes.

However, it did not all end to textbook plan.

Three men formed the day’s early breakaway, they were well policed, but only two were brought back into the fold. Unexpectedly one rider, Petr Vakoc (OPQS) - solo from the last intermediate sprint - held an advantage to the line and thieved the win, and yellow jersey, from the sprinters.

“Honestly, I like to see when the breakaway goes to the end," sports director Adriano Baffi said. "Of course it would have been better if it were one of us!  We talked this morning; we had six of the team crash yesterday, so it was better to be calm at the beginning, also since it was 226 kilometers. At the end Vakoc had a very good ride.  He did not lose a lot of time when he was alone, and that shows he was very, very strong.”

The peloton arrived 21 seconds later to contest the sprint for second, a strange twist in a stage highly projected to play out in a mass sprint.

Fabio Silvestre rebounded from crashing three times in yesterday’s rainy stage to finish 12th, the highest placed for Trek Factory Racing. The rest of the team arrived safely, an unassuming but necessary day to recover from stage one's crashes.

“For us it was not up to us to control the race," Baffi said. "We have a young sprinter in [Fabio] Silvestre who is still learning the ropes. There are big sprinters here who have the responsibility, not us.

"Everyone is okay after yesterday. Better than what we thought. Silvestre was 12th, and at the end he fought well for his place. In the next days he will have his chances again.

"So we will look to the next days, maybe tomorrow, where we could have more opportunity.  We had nothing to do today.  But it was good to see today that nothing is impossible. It you try, sometimes you get it.”