The fugitive

Obviously not too fatigued from yesterday's exploits, Pierre Cazaux was at it again in today's second Tour of Poland stage. The diminutive Frenchman broke away along with three others early on but, just like yesterday, they never really stood a chance and were reeled in well in time for the dash for the line. Thanks to intermediate sprint points picked up underway he's now situated in 6th overall, which is by a mile his best result so far this season. Koldo Fernández is still searching for his first win of the year as a careless manoeuvre by an Astana rider took out the unlucky fastman along with a host of others inside the last two kilometres. Koldo had nowhere to go and hit the deck violently at full speed but somehow escaped serious injury. Landing shoulder-first I feared another broken clavicle, but for once he got lucky and is set to start tomorrow's stage. Along with the rest of the team he ended up with the same time as winner Kittel.

Samu is still going strong and today took out a post-Tour crit in front of a bumper 50 000-crowd in Roosendaal. Samu bested Basso and Hoogerland to take his second crit-win to go with his win in Roeselare on Wednesday (a win I forgot to mention last week, but which a reader kindly reminded me of earlier today).