Thu 6 Aug 2020
Slovenian Luka Mezgec finished just outside the top-10 on the second stage of the Tour de Pologne, won by world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).
After an awful crash marred the opening stage, day two went off without trouble as Mitchelton-SCOTT contributed to the chase to set up the finish line sprint opportunity with Mezgec caught out of poisition and unable to launch his sprint, settling for 11th place.
Subdued start:
With the peloton’s thoughts largely in the direction of Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck – Quick step) who was the worst effected in yesterday’s crash, the peloton rolled out of Opole ready for another sprint stage in Poland.
Two riders, Maciej Paterski (Poland) and Julius Van Den Berg (EF Pro Cycling), surged ahead with little argument from the bunch and rode out to almost six minute’s advantage.
Contributing to the chase:
As the race entered the final 50km, Mitchelton-SCOTT sent Hungarian Barnabas Peak to the front of peloton to contribute to the chase efforts. With 45km remaining, the duo’s advantage sat at two-minutes 30seconds.
The chase brought racing back together with 16.5km to go and, with the exception of a late and short-lived solo attempt from the Polish National Team, the remainder of the stage went by the book as the rainbow jersey won a close finish ahead of Pascal Ackermann (BORA – Hansgrohe).
Luka Mezgec:
“Today went by all good. The peloton was a bit more easy after yesterday’s stress and fight.
“Barney did a good job pulling and controlling the pace on the laps, which is great to see for his first WorldTour race.
“We were doing well until 1.7km to go, when I had to brake because of near crash in front of me. From there, I had lost all the positions for contesting the sprint.”
Tour de Pologne – Stage 2 Results:
1. Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) 3:26:02
2. Pascal Ackermann (BORA – hansgrohe) ST
3. Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck – Quick step) ST
11. Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-SCOTT) ST
Tour de Pologne – General Classification after Stage 2:
1. Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) 7:57:42
2. Pascal Ackermann (BORA – hansgrohe) +0:04
3. Kamil Malecki (CCC Team) +0:04
4. Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-SCOTT) +0:06
Photo credit: Getty Images.
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