Brand breaks away on stage one of the Tour de Pologne
05 August 2020
Race: TDP Stage 1
Date: 5th August 2020
Start/Finish: Stadion Slaski – Katowice
Distance: 195.8 kilometers
Sam Brand (GBR – Isle of Man)
It feels so good to be back in a WorldTour race and going straight into the breakaway. It’s one of those things, you can overthink it and then it becomes quite stressful and sometimes you don’t make it, but today I attacked early and the move went away.
That was the main goal for today – get in the break, so as soon as the group settled down myself and the other three guys went pretty hard and we rode well together. The Polish guys in the group wanted to show themselves and that contributed to making the move stick.
I was focused on trying to take some points in the KOM’s, but it was a super hard and long day out and by the time we hit the closing circuits the pace was really high. We got caught on the last lap, but I’m happy and I’ll go to bed with a smile on my face tonight, wake up in the morning, take a look at the map for tomorrow’s stage and take it from there.
Massimo Podenzana, DS
We wanted to get someone in the break today, that was the objective, to be aggressive from the start and show ourselves against the WorldTour teams and Sam did a great job to make the early breakaway.
He attacked early, almost straight out of the neutral zone and when the other guys followed him, they immediately started to work well together. They were out there for most of the stage, so it was a really positive start for us.
All our guys came through the stage in good condition. Andrea Peron had a little bit of cramp before the finish, but he’s ok and both Charles Planet and Peter Kusztor were in good shape towards the front of the bunch. We achieved our goals today and we have four more stages and four more opportunities here in Poland.
Next Up:
Tomorrow the world’s first all-diabetes professional cycling team will continue to show what’s possible with diabetes on Stage 2 at the Tour of Poland with a 151.5-kilometer race that starts in Opole and finishes in Zabrze.
Photo Credit: Tour de Pologne
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