Crash disrupts stage five sprint at Tour de Pologne

Beautiful sunshine poured down on stage five of the Tour de Pologne with short climbs in abundance and the peloton content to sit behind the breakaway, Team Novo Nordisk were not alone in biding their time for the sprint finale in downtown Rzeszow until a huge crash took out half the peloton.

With all the energy focused on supporting GP Kranj winner Andrea Peron, the world’s first all diabetes professional cycling team were left to rue a missed opportunity with the crash occurring in the final kilometer, but thankful that everyone made it through ok.

Andrea Peron (ITA):

“I don’t know if we would have achieved a good result, but we had ridden well throughout the day, and I was moving up at the time the crash happened after Peter had worked hard to keep me towards the front. But I was certainly lucky to avoid it. Suddenly everyone in front of me came down and let’s just say I came to an abrupt stop.”

“It’s quite lucky really but frustrating at the same time because we had a tough time holding on over the climbs today and I felt like we had a chance of a top ten in the sprint. There’s one more opportunity left after tomorrow’s time trial, so we need to come through within the time cut tomorrow and do our best on Friday in Krakow. I’m in a good place after GP Kranj and it would be a shame to miss another opportunity.”

Head Sports Director Massimo Podenzana:

“Another tough stage today. Another day where our guys realized that it’s not easy racing at WorldTour level day in day out. But we worked hard today, Peter did an excellent job staying with Andrea until the closing kilometers and before the crash I thought Andrea could do well today.”

“We passed the line once before the finish and could see that it was technical, lots of sharp corners but in the run in to the line those corners are taken much faster, and it only takes one guy to go down to disrupt everyone else and that’s what happened today. All our guys came through though and that’s the most important thing.”