Kwiatkowski sprints into second

Michal Kwiatkowski sprinted into second overall at the Tour of Poland after finishing an impressive third on stage four.

Michal Kwiatkowski sprinted into second overall at the Tour of Poland after finishing an impressive third on stage four.

The Pole launched his burst early, rounded several traditional sprinters and gained ground on eventual stage winner Fernando Gaviria (Etixx - Quick-Step) and second placed Luka Mezgec (Orica-BikeExchange) to finish on the podium.

The result bumped him up the general classification to second, where he sits 19 bonus seconds behind Gaviria, with the hilliest stages of the WorldTour race to come.

Nicolas Roche and Pete Kennaugh were prominent in the closing stages in Poland, while Leo Konig suffered a late crash but remains well placed on the general classification.

Lancaster update

Speaking to TeamSky.com after the stage Sport Director Brett Lancaster praised Kwiatkowski's effort, and he believes that several members of the team are in good shape ahead of the race's decisive days.

He said: "Everyone's in good spirits. Kwiato got up there and had a little bit of a kick today, Nico Roche had a real good dig at two kilometres to go with Philippe Gilbert (BMC), so the boys are really on it and keen to race. We can't fault them at all there - they've been really good.

"Kwiatkowski is in a great position, Nico is feeling really good, and a bit of an outside bet is Leo [Konig]: even though he crashed quite heavily today, he's looking good. Hopefully we have a few cards to play."

Konig went down in the closing stages and Elia Viviani was caught up in the crash - his second of the race.

Lancaster added: "I was following Elia in, he got caught up in the crash when Leo went down and the docs are just looking at Leo now - he hurt his face a little bit. Michal Golas is off to the hospital now for a routine check up on his hands after he crashed yesterday and Elia's crashed twice now - so it really hasn't been the best race for crashes!"

Intxausti departure

Despite the crashes Lancaster was keen to stress that the mood in the camp is very good, although the team have been hit by the loss of Benat Intxausti, who abandoned before the start of stage four.

"Sadly Benat went home today," explained Lancaster. "He's had a really rough year with illness. It's a real shame for him. He wants to race, he's keen, he just doesn't have the power right now. That's the way cycling is sometimes, and the illness he had [glandular fever] is a really horrible illness. It can knock you around for a whole year. We're all on his side, we know where he's at, and we'll do what's best for him.

"He was 100% a team player the first day, he was on the front trying to help out the boys and eager to help the team, but at the end of the day we've got to assess things, go back to the drawing board, and see what we do with him coaching and training wise ahead of his next race."

Tough terrain awaits

Stages three and four both had the potential to split the race with tough climbs in the last 50km but on both days the sprinters were able to get back onto the peloton ahead of the finish.

Lancaster added: "There was one really steep climb today, it went up to 22% at one point, but there was a long way to the finish. The guys can always get back on there. There's some much harder stuff coming up over the next three days and that's where the race is going to be won or lost.

"There's nearly 5,000m of climbing on stage six and I remember racing it myself last year - it was one of the hardest days I had all year. That's comparable to climbing metres on the hardest days of the Tour de France, it's just that it's always up or down. It's a very, very demanding course. Whoever wins that stage is probably going to win the race overall."