Bart De Clercq again denied the blue-fuchsia-green colors the glory of victory. The Belgian rider, who prevented Michele Scarponi from winning the Montevergine di Mercogliano stage of the 2011 Giro d'Italia by beating him by a few centimetres, obtained the success in the 5th stage of the Tour de Pologne, reaching the finish 3" before Diego Ulissi.

It was a very important day for the battle for the overall standing in the Tour de Pologne: the stage decimated the bunch, leaving 12 riders who will fight for the victory in the general classification. The 223 km from Nowy Sacz to Zakopane made LAMPRE-MERIDA realize that Diego Ulissi will be the captain for that battle

Many attackscharacterized the early kilometers of the stage until 6 riders (Turgot, Beltran, Bole, Breen, Boeckmans and Vallee) succeeded in escaping from the bunch. The breakaway had a maximum advantage of 6'20", but today the bunch did not allow the attackers too much freedom, ending the chase succesfully 63km from the finish

With 50 km to go, the stage was animated by a series of attacksand Cattaneo was one of the protagonists. The attacks ended when 40 riders succeded in taking the lead: two blue-fuchsia-green jersey were in this group, namely Diego Ulissi and Manuele Mori.

The key moment was the climb of Gubalowka with 13 km to go which created a leading group of 11 riders wit Ulissi. The Italian rider was the fastest in the group, so no one supported him in the chase of De Clercq, who attacked with 4 km to go. Ulissi decided to lead the chase by himself but he had to settle for second

LAMPRE-MERIDA's captain is 2nd in the overall classification too, 4" behind De Clercq.

Sacha Modolo did not finish the stage.

Ulissi explained: "De Clercq made his attack in the right moment and was great in keeping a high speed until the finish. I was the fastest rider in the group and no one wanted to help me in the chase, so I decided to start a lone chase: Reichenbach followed me, but he had no energy to support me. 

"It's a bittersweat feeling to have missed the victory in such an interesting stage, but I received good feedbacks from my legs, especially on the last very demanding climb. I'd like to deliver a good performance in tomorrowøs stage too, so I need to rest and to recover."