Kristof Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing) time-trialled to stage seven success at the Tour of Poland as Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) held on to his overall lead to earn the first stage race success of his career.
Majka, who won the mountainous stages five and six to claim the yellow jersey, lost 14 seconds to Jon Izaguirre (Movistar) but his time of 30.01 on the 25-kilometre Krakow circuit was enough to maintain an eight-second lead overall.
It means 24-year-old home favourite Majka, who won the points classification in last year’s race, took the yellow jersey within a fortnight of his Tour de France King of the Mountains success.
Belgian time trial champion Vandewalle – formerly a key part of Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s back-to-back world team time trial successes – took the stage win meanwhile, edging out his Italian counterpart Adriano Malori (Movistar) by three seconds.
The out-and-back course had seen Mateusz Taciak (CCC Polsat Polkowice) set the early benchmark, becoming the first man to break the half-hour mark with a time of 29.58.
With several strong time triallists on the course, however, the mark eventually came down as Malori – in his first race since being crowned Italian time trial champion – went 36 seconds faster.
Great Britain’s Steve Cummings (BMC Racing) also rode himself back into form as he completed the course in 29.28 – placing him provisionally second and proving enough to eventually bag him the final spot on the podium in third.
It also marked the first stage race Cummings has completed since crashing out of the Baloise Belgium Tour – suffering an injury which ruled him out of the Tour de France.
With the top three riders – Majka, Izaguirre and Benat Intxausti (Movistar) still to roll down the starting ramp, Vandewalle shaved three seconds off Malori’s time however.
The Belgian champion set an average speed of 51.2km/h as he took his third time trial win of the season – a tally which includes his third consecutive Belgian title – and he would have gone even faster were it not for misjudging the final corner and narrowly avoiding crashing out.
Vandewalle was by no means guaranteed the victory when he finished, but with all eyes on the race for the yellow jersey he was able to enjoy proceedings from the hot seat.
Majka was expected to concede time to his rivals in the time trial, and when Izaguirre set his time of 29.47 it looked to be the Spaniard’s title.
Though Intxausti was off the pace, losing 18 seconds to his rival, Movistar looked well placed for the overall win but the Polish ace had other ideas.
Burying himself on the course, not only did Majka cut his losses but he also finished faster than Intxausti.
Initially he did not appear to know if his effort had been enough, but he could not hide his delight when his win was confirmed – Tinkoff-Saxo’s third WorldTour stage race win of the season.
Tour of Poland 2014: stage seven (ITT) – result
1) Kristof Vandewalle (BEL) – Trek Factory Racing – 29.18
2) Adriano Malori (ITA) – Movistar +3”
3) Steve Cummings (GBR) – BMC Racing +10”
4) Steve Morabito (SUI) – BMC Racing +20”
5) Gorka Izaguirre (ESP) – Movistar +22”
6) Dario Cataldo (ITA) – Team Sky +28”
7) Jon Izaguirre (ESP) – Movistar +29”
8) Bob Jungels (LUX) – Trek Factory Racing +34”
9) Christophe Riblon (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +38”
10) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Orica-GreenEDGE – ST
General classification
1) Rafal Majka (POL) – Tinkoff-Saxo – 30.16.18hrs
2) Jon Izaguirre (ESP) – Movistar +8”
3) Benat Intxausti (ESP) – Movistar +22”
4) Christophe Riblon (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +34”
5) Przemyslaw Niemiec (POL) – Lampre-Merida +1.20
6) Andrey Amador (CRC) – Movistar +1.21
7) Philip Deignan (IRL) – Team Sky +1.24
8) Robert Gesink (NED) – Belkin Pro Cycling +1.41
9) Dominik Nerz (GER) – BMC Racing +1.42
10) Petr Vakoc (CZE) – Omega Pharma-Quickstep +1.49
