Tour of Poland: Matteo Pelucchi wins as Marcel Kittel retains lead

Matteo Pelucchi sprinted to victory on stage two of the Tour of Poland as Marcel Kittel retained the overall lead by finishing second.

Only eight riders contested the sprint finish in Dabrowa Gornicza, after a huge crash either brought down or held up the rest of the field.

Pelucchi (IAM Cycling) beat Kittel (Giant-Shimano) by more than a bike’s length, although the race leader appeared to feel that the Italian had cut across his path just after the pair had begun their sprint.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) finished third, despite being involved in the initial collision that caused the crash.

Kittel received six bonus seconds for his result and consequently stretches his overall lead to 10 seconds over second-placed Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) and 12 seconds over third-placed Niccolo Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida).

The seven-day race continues on Tuesday with a 166km third stage from Zawiercie to Katowice.

Stage two result

1 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) IAM Cycling, 3:20:12

2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, +4sec

3 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek Factory Racing, +6

4 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +10

5 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, same time

6 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st

7 Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Team Sky, st

8 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den) Cannondale-Garmin, st

9 Mitchell Docker (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st

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

General classification

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, 6:03:09

2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, +10sec

3 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +12

4 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek Factory Racing, same time

5 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) BMC Racing, +13

6 Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +16

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

8 Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Team Sky, st

9 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, st

10 Lorrenzo Manzin (Fra) FDJ.fr, st