Tour of Poland: Marcel Kittel wins first stage and takes overall lead

German finally breaks duck in illness-affected season

Sunday 2 August 2015 17:09, UK

Marcel Kittel sprinted to his first win of an illness-affected 2015 season on the opening stage of the Tour of Poland.

The Giant-Alpecin rider beat Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) into second place and Niccolo Bonifazo (Lampre-Merida) into third at the end of a 10-lap circuit race in Warsaw.

It was the 27-year-old German’s first victory since the final stage of the 2014 Tour of Britain last September.

Ten, six and four bonus seconds were awarded to the first three riders over the line, meaning Kittel leads Ewan by four seconds and Bonifazo by six seconds in the general classification.

Kittel has been hampered by illness all year and was not fit enough to be selected for Giant-Alpecin’s team at last month’s Tour de France.

The seven-day Tour of Poland continues on Monday with a 146km second stage from Czestochowa to Dabrowa Gornicza, which should end in a bunch sprint.

Stage one result

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, 2:43:13

2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, same time

3 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lamore-Merida, st

4 Dennis van Winden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st

5 Sebastien Turgot (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st

6 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal, st

7 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Astana, st

8 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) FDJ.fr, st

9 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Etixx – Quick-Step, st