Tour de Pologne 2015 Stage 3: Pelucchi takes second, Kittel still leader

Stage 3 leads from Zawiercie to Katowice and the race closes with four 14.7 kilometres laps. The inevitable bunch sprint is won by Matteo Pelucchi, just like yesterday, while Marcel Kittel is nowhere to be seen. Still, the German retains the GC lead. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 3rd stage Tour de Pologne

1. Matteo Pelucchi (ita)
2. Giacomo Nizzolo (ita) s.t.
3. Tom van Asbroeck (bel) s.t.
4. Roberto Ferrari (ita) s.t.
5. Nicolo Bonifazio (ita) s.t.
6. Gianni Meersman (bel) s.t.
7. Marcel Kittel (ger) s.t.
8. Pawel Franczak (pol) s.t.
9. Andrea Guardini (ita) s.t.
10. Roger Kluge (ger) s.t.

GC after stage 3
1. Marcel Kittel (ger)
2. Giacomo Nizzolo (ita) + 0.06
3. Caleb Ewan (nZl) + 0.10
4. Marcus Burghardt (ger) s.t.
5. Nicolo Bonifazio (ita) + 0.12
6. Tom Van Asbroeck (bel) s.t.
7. Sebastien Turgot (fra) + 0.16
8. Salvatore Puccio (ita) s.t.
9. Lorenzo Manzin (fra) s.t.
10. Nikias Arndt (ger) s.t.

11. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) s.t.
56. Fabio Aru (ita) s.t.

Race report
In the first kilometre Marcus Burghardt, Matej Mohoric, Adrian Kurek, Ian Boswell, Kamil Gradek and Marcin Bialoblocki get off the front to race to a 3 minutes advantage, before the pack takes control to bring it down. Just like in prior stages, the gain lingers at 1 to 2 minutes. Burghardt and Gradek are dropped.

With 40 km’s left, the gap shrinks to under 1 minute with IAM Cycling leading the chase.

Marcin Bialoblocki goes solo at 20 km’s from the finish and when the bell rings for the last round he enjoys a 0’44” gain. He is reeled in with 4.2 km’s to go.

Matteo Pelucchi pays hommage to his IAM Cycling team-mates by outsprinting his country-man Nizzolo on the line.