Tour of Poland – Stage 4 – Jonathan Fumeaux – The harder stages are coming up, so I hope I will be fit enough to be present, especially to help Sébastien Reichenbach and Stefan Denifl –

The Tour of Poland faced its first real climbs today, and the peloton immediately paid the price.  Accordingly, three escapees snuck away from the pack at kilometer zero and stayed ahead until the finish line.  The tactical daring meant they were off the front for 220 kilometers, and resulted in a stage victory for Maciej Bodnar (Saxo-Tinkoff) who beat his companions in the sprint.  The pack, caught off guard by the strength of the three members of the breakaway, finished 20 seconds behind.  For the IAM Cycling team, Sébastien Reichenbach and Stefan Denifl were well protected all day by their teammates, and will look to the most difficult days feeling comfortable in the fact that they have not given up silly time.

Jonathan Fumeaux has been extremely diligent in his role as supporting rider.  Having already focused on coordinating Matteo Pelucchi’s safe passage through the stages prior to Wednesday, he will be expected to accomplish an even bigger task in the coming days.  “We did not know if Matteo Pelucchi could handle the climbs today,” Fumeaux explained.  “Near the final, he was stung by a wasp and immediately went to see the race doctor because he started to have an allergic reaction.  It was bad luck that at this precise point, the peloton decided to chase very hard, and he was unable to rejoin the front.  Vicente Reynes was then our guy for the sprint, but somehow, the three breakaway guys kept their advantage.  Maybe we feel a little bit of regret that we did not put someone in the break.  But they were obviously three very strong riders, so hats off to them.”

“For my part, I felt a bit tired early on in the race, but then with every kilometer, I started to feel better and better.  The harder stages are coming up, so I hope I will be fit enough to be present, which includes helping Sébastien Reichenbach and Stefan Denifl.  Both are in good shape, so why shouldn’t we try to go for the overall?  The last stage will be a time trial, which could act as a trap, so it will be a good idea to slip into a breakaway and hope to get a bit of a lead ahead of the final stage.  By tomorrow, we will already have an idea of how the rest may play out.”

As for the rest of the race, Rubens Bertogliati, directeur sportif for the team at the Tour of Poland along with Marcello Albasini, was rather confident.  “The team has really shown itself well on Wednesday,” Bertogliati said.  “We saw them on the front as soon as there were any difficulties, which already proves that all the riders have good condition.  But it also shows how good their spirit is.  They are all eager volunteers and this is a positive thing.  Matteo being stung was our only small incident.  We’ll see the next stages how things go, but I am calm and optimistic for the next days.”