Pologne: Crash Splinters the Sprinters

Liquigas's Jacopo Guarnieri took advantage of a massive pileup in the final kilometers and took the sprint (minus many of the better sprinters) for both the stage and the overall lead of the race. He got a great leadout from another teammate who survived the crash and outsprinted the shortened group to take the opening stage in Warsaw. It is really unknown who started the huge crash, but it caused many of the races top riders to go head over heels and many others to be stopped behind the immense carnage.

Luckily for the field, none will lose any time due to the fact that the crash occurred with less than 3 km to go. Nobody seemed to have any serious injuries, although riders like Saxo Bank's JJ Haedo seemed quite shaken up. There was another crash earlier in the stage involving FDJ's Timothy Gudsell. He seemed seriously injured and needed further medical attention, thus withdrawing from the race. Though it was not a full field, it was still a huge victory for Guarnieri. He called it probably "the biggest win" of his career, and believes it is a huge stepping point for his career. He will also wear the leaders jersey tomorrow.

Stage Results

1 Jacopo Guarnieri
2 Aitor Galdos Alonso
3 Allan Davis
General Classification

1 Jacopo Guarnieri

2 Aitor Galdos Alonso -4
3 Blazej Janiaczyk
4 Michael Schär -5

5 Laszlo Bodrogi
6 Allan Davis -6
7 Daniel Sesma -8
8 Sébastien Chavanel -10
9 Jaroslaw Marycz
10 Christopher Sutton

27. Peter Sagan

32. Alessandro Ballan

63. Matteo Carrara

96. Oscar Pereiro

124. Vasili Kiryienka

Points

1. Jacopo Guarnieri 20

2. Aitor Galdos Alonso 19

3. Allan Davis 18

King of the Mountains

1. Lukasz Bodnar 3

2. Dominique Rollin 2

3. Steve Houanard 1

All Teams at Same Time

Tomorrow's stage is a rather flat but long 240 km stage. I would expect it to be a day for the sprinters.