Lotto Belisol have gone into the sprint stages of the Tour de Pologne with several cards to play but as Kenny Dehaes and Jonas Vangenechten have both been set back by bad luck, youngster Boris Vallee has been their main man. Today the neo-pro took a surprise third and may now get more chances later in the race.

After his seventh place in yesterday's stage Boris Vallée sprinted to the third place in the Tour de Pologne today. Petr Vakoc could stay ahead of the bunch after a long breakaway.

21 seconds later the bunch sprinted for the second place in Warsaw. Michael Matthews crossed the finish line first, followed by Boris Vallée. In GC the 21-year-old neo-pro is fourth now at 33 seconds of Vakoc, who takes over the jersey from Yauheni Hutarovich.

"I got second in the bunch sprint and third in the stage, certainly not a bad result but no victory of course," he said. "It was nervous in the peloton. AG2R, the team of leader Hutarovich, played poker. At a certain moment they stopped chasing. When the gap had risen other teams began to lend a hand, for us it was Pim Ligthart who assisted in the chase. The advantage of Vakoc was too big.

"Yesterday we would launch the sprint for Kenny Dehaes, but he crashed in the final. I had hit the ground as well earlier in the stage, but could calmly return to the front. Then I did the sprint and became seventh.

"Today I rode for the team. Jonas Van Genechten got boxed in at the barriers, so I took my chance again. My condition is really good.

"We'll see what happens the next few days. Tomorrow there's another sprint stage in theory, but bad weather is forecasted. If there's a big break that could make an end to the sprinters' hopes. Tomorrow morning we'll decide who will be our first man for the sprint."