Tour of Poland: Rafal Majka wins mountainous fifth stage

Rafal Majka timed his late attack to perfection to win a mountainous fifth stage of the Tour of Poland.

Majka looked to have left it too late as attacks flew off the front on the third ascent to Strbske Pleso, but produced a stinging salvo on the final drag to the finish and passed a whole host of riders before taking his victory by over a bike length.

Benat Intxausti had been one of the first riders to chip off the front and clung on for second on the day, with his Movistar team-mate Jon Izaguirre battling to the remaining spot on the podium.

Time bonuses also saw Majka leap to second in the overall standings, where he now trails Petr Vakoc by just one second. Vakoc was distanced from a reduced peloton on the last rise to the line, but dug deep to limit his losses and retain his grip on the yellow jersey.

New phase

The tour had entered a new phase on Thursday with five categorised climbs and 190km on the agenda.

Eight riders headed up the road as the race crossed into Slovakia, and rain fell for much of the stage as attention gradually turned to a tricky finale featuring three laps of the same category-one climb.

The front group swelled heading into the closing stages, and despite the peloton setting a fierce pace, there were still a number of attacks from motivated riders.

Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) held off the peloton for 22km and Sebastian Henao (Team Sky) also enjoyed some time off the front before Tinkoff-Saxo brought things back together for their two-time Tour de France stage winner.

Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team Sky), Ilnur Zakarin (RusVelo) and Peter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) all had surgeons off the front on the last rise to the summit, but Majka bided his time brilliantly before rounding things off in devastating style.

Stage five result
1 - Rafal Majka (POL) - Tinkoff - Saxo - (4:30:38)
2 - Beñat Intxausti (ESP) - Movistar - (+0)
3 - Gorka Izagirre (ESP) - Movistar - (+0)
4 - Gianluca Brambilla (ITA) - Omega Pharma - Quick-Step - (+0)
5 - Warren Barguil (FRA) - Giant - (+0)
6 - Samuel Sánchez (ESP) - BMC Racing - (+0)
7 - Davide Formolo (ITA) - Cannondale - (+0)
8 - Lars-Petter Nordhaug - Belkin - (+0)
9 - Andrey Amador (CRC) - Movistar - (+0)
10 - Przemyslaw Niemiec (POL) - Lampre - (+0)

General classification
1 - Petr Vakoc (CZE) - Omega Pharma - Quick-Step - (25:05:28)
2- Rafal Majka (POL) - Tinkoff - Saxo - (+1)
3 - Beñat Intxausti (ESP) - Movistar - (+5)
4 - Jon Izagirre (ESP) - Movistar - (+7)
5 - Davide Formolo (ITA) - Cannondale - (+11)
6 - Damiano Caruso (ITA) - Cannondale - (+11)
7 - Marek Rutkiewicz (POL) - CCC - (+10)
8 - Peter Velits (SVK) - BMC Racing - (+10)
9 - Andrey Amador (CRC) - Movistar - (+10)
10 - Robert Gesink (NED) - Belkin - (+10)