Tour of Poland: Stage for BMC’s Thor Hushovd

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Good news for the BMC team with a stage win for former World Champion Thor Hushovd in the Tour of Poland, Ben Swift 9th.

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Thor Hushovd won Stage 3 of the Tour de Pologne Tuesday after the BMC Racing Team worked hard to chase down a four-man breakaway that led by nearly 11 minutes at one point in the 226-kilometer race.

Hushovd powered his way past Mark Renshaw (Belkin Pro Cycling) in the final 100 meters and held off a charging Steele Von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) – who finished second – to earn his fourth victory of the season. “The wind was coming from the left, so I knew he (Renshaw) would close the door to the right,” Hushovd said. “So I was already thinking about this and knew I would have to go left.”

“Taylor Phinney did a good job and the whole team did really well. I’m really happy to get this win. I was quite confident today and the team had a lot of confidence in me – so that really helped.” The victory was the BMC Racing Team’s fourth in the past nine days, adding to two stage wins and the overall title by Greg Van Avermaet at the Tour de Wallonie last week.

Hushovd’s previous wins include Stage 1 of the Tour du Haut Var, the Norwegian road championship and Stage 3 of the Tour of Austria. After celebrating with his five teammates, the past world road champion was already looking ahead to more opportunities. “I think tomorrow there’s going to be another bunch sprint,” he said. “There are also a couple of harder stages that might be good for me. So there still might be some interesting days to come.”

BMC Racing Team Assistant Director Fabio Baldato said it was satisfying to see the squad work well on a long, rainy, wind-swept stage. “Marco Pinotti and Mathias Frank did most of the chasing of the breakaway and I was afraid maybe we did too much work,” Baldato said. “But as we saw in the final, we were all good, with Dominik Nerz, Ivan Santaromita and Taylor Phinney doing the lead-out.”

Phinney, who was the last teammate to provide escort for the Norwegian road champion, said he had never done a full-fledged lead-out for a sprint before. “But I felt great coming into the last kilometers and even put in a bit of a dig to catch the breakaway,” he said. “Robert Wagner of Belkin pulled off with 800 meters to go and then I gave it everything I had left in order to get Thor to 300 or 200 meters to go and he was perfectly positioned right behind Renshaw.” Phinney said competing with six-man squads in Poland, rather than the traditional eight, has brought the BMC Racing Team closer together.

“We’re very happy and motivated and really a close-knit group,” he said. “You see Ivan Santaromita at the end of the race pulling the break back and he’s fighting for a top 10 position overall. So we’re all really working hard for each other and having a great time doing it.” Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) remained the race leader as the top of the overall standings went unchanged.

 

STAGE 3
1 HUSHOVD Thor BMC Racing Team 05:10:02
2 RENSHAW Mark Belkin Pro Cycling Team @ st
3 VON HOFF Steele Garmin – Sharp @ st
4 BOLE Grega Vacansoleil – DCM @ st
5 VAN DER SANDE Tosh Lotto Belisol Team @ st
6 HOWARD Leigh Orica GreenEDGE @ st
7 GOLAS Michal Omega Pharma – Quick-Step @ st
8 HUTAROVICH Yauheni AG2R La Mondiale @ st
9 SWIFT Ben Sky Procycling @ st
10 MEZGEC Luka Team Argos – Shimano @ st

13 PHINNEY Taylor BMC Racing Team @ st
21 SERGENT Jesse RadioShack – Leopard @ st
63 CANCELLARA Fabian RadioShack – Leopard @ st
68 VOSS Paul Team NetApp – Endura @ st
84 BAGDONAS Gediminas AG2R La Mondiale @ st
105 PINOTTI Marco BMC Racing Team @ 21
106 WIGGINS Bradley Sky Procycling @ 21
Overall
1 MAJKA Rafal Team Saxo-Tinkoff 16:14:45
2 HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis Sky Procycling 00:04
3 RIBLON Christophe AG2R La Mondiale 00:06
4 WEENING Pieter Orica GreenEDGE 00:07
5 IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Ion Euskaltel – Euskadi 00:09
6 SORENSEN Chris Anker Team Saxo-Tinkoff ,,
7 POZZOVIVO Domenico AG2R La Mondiale 00:13
8 CAPECCHI Eros Movistar Team ,,
9 KISERLOVSKI Robert RadioShack – Leopard 00:16
10 ROHREGGER Thomas RadioShack – Leopard 00:18

 

 

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