Course de la Solidarité Olympique - 2.4Poland, July 4-8, 2001The Stages
Stage 1 - July 4: Kronso - Kronso, 204 kmAndrus Aug wins stage 1 in a sprintBy Daniel Marszalek This stage was the toughest of this relatively easy (profile-wise) edition, but still ended in sprint finish. The most serious break happened on the Glorietta hill near Iwonicz Zdroj but that was only after 65 kms. Top team CCC-Mat intends to control the big bunch in the next couple of days waiting for the TT on Saturday. With people like Piotr Przydzial and Ondrej Sosenka - both ITT champions in their countries, Krzysztof Szafranski - 3rd in Polish ITT Champs. and in-form Polish RR champion Radoslaw Romanik, they have a good chances to win the race, but still there are rivals like Thomas Liese from team Nurnberger, the current German ITT champion. Results1 Andrus Aug (Est)Amore e Vita 4.40.04 2 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 3 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 4 Slawomir Chrzanowski (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice 5 Piotr Zaradny (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 6 Grzegorz Gronkiewicz (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice 7 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Wustenrot 8 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Wiesenhof 9 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites 10 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia-Bazyliszek General classification after stage 1 1 Andrus Aug (Est)Amore e Vita 4.40.01 2 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 0.01 3 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 0.02 4 Slawomir Chrzanowski (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice 0.03 5 Piotr Zaradny (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 6 Grzegorz Gronkiewicz (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice 7 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Wustenrot 8 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Wiesenhof 9 Mario De Clercq (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites 10 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia-Bazyliszek Stage 2 - July 5: Jaroslaw - Chelm, 184 kmVan Dijk prevails on flat second stageBy Daniel Marszalek On day 2 of the race there were no categorised hills, and as expected it ended in a big bunch sprint. The most agressive rider of the stage was Slawomir Chrzanowski from the Polish division III team - Weltour, he raced some 120 kilometres ahead of peleton, first in the company of Vincent Cali (France - Collstrop) and Martin van Steen (Holland - Batavus), then alone until 40 kms from the finish line. In the closing kilometres Grzegorz Rosolinski from Servisco tried his luck, but the peloton caught him a few kms from the finish, which was dominated by Batavus' Dutch sprinters.
Results1 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 4.23.41 2 Krzystof Jezofski (Pol) Mikomax 3 Rudie Kemna (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 4 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 5 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 6 Piotr Zaradny (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 7 Daniel Czajkowski (Pol) Servisco 8 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice 9 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 10 Pawel Szaniawski (Pol) Servisco General classification after stage 2 1 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 9.03.42 2 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 3 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 0.01 4 Krzystof Jezofski (Pol) Mikomax 5 André Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof Leipzig 0.02 6 Rudi Kemna (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 7 Piotr Zaradny (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 0.03 8 Daniel Czajkowski (Pol) Servisco 9 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia-Bazyliszek 10 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Weltour-Radio Katowice Stage 3 - July 6: Krasnystaw - Stalowa Wola, 180 kmVan Dijk maintains his leadBy Daniel Marszalek The most prominent break of the day was by four men, with the ever present Slawomir Chrzanowski (Weltour Radio Katowice), who, thanks to his active riding, took the blue jersey of the intermediate sprints competition. All observers of the race have been impressed by "Chrzanek's" performance. Despite the fact he'll have to undergo an eye operation very shortly, he still decided to race in Solidarity race, because as a team leader did not want to disappoint his team collegues, since this race is a very important test for the Tour de Pologne selection. The TdP, a 2.3 category race is certainly one of the best in Central Europe and will be held in two months time. Already four Division II teams (Amore e Vita, Atlas-Lukullus, CCC-Mat, Mroz-Supradyn) have been invited, while the fifth "Polish place" out of 18 in total will decided between remaining 4 Division III teams (Legia, Mikomax, Servisco or Weltour). Results1 Rudi Kemna (Ned) Bankgiroloterij-Batavus 3.57.35 2 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) Bankgiroloterij-Batavus 3 Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 4 Adam Wadecki (Pol) Mroz-Supradyn Witaminy 5 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 6 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Wiesenhof 7 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia-Bazyliszek 8 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 9 Kristof Trouve (Bel) Collstrop 10 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Wustenrot General classification after stage 3 1 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) Bankgiroloterij-Batavus 13.01.15 2 Rudi Kemna (Ned) Bankgiroloterij-Batavus 0.01 3 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 0.02 4 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 0.03 5 Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol) Mikomax 6 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 0.04 7 Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 8 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia-Bazyliszek 0.05 9 Piotr Zaradny (Pol) Atlas-Lukullus 10 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Wustenrot Stage 4a - July 7: Tarnobrzeg - Kielce, 121 km
Results1 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 2.44.37 2 Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol) Mikomax 3 Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Atlas 4 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 5 Robert Radosz (Pol) Atlas 6 Corrado Serina (Ita) Alexia 7 Aleksiej Nakaznyj (Ukr) Mikomax 8 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita General classififcation after stage 4 1 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 15.45.49 2 Rudi Kemna (Ned) BankGiroLoterij-Batavus 0.04 3 Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol) Mikomax 4 Audrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 0.05 5 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia Alluminio 0.06 Stage 4b - July 7: Bodzentyn - Skarzysko Kamienna ITT, 37.8 kmTT decides itBy Daniel Marszalek As most of the experts predicted - after generally a very flat course, the easiest for years - the GC competition went down to the decisive ITT on Saturday evening. The only hilly stage - on day 1 around Krosno was not demanding enough to break the peloton, so all road stages ended in big bunch sprints with Dutchman Stefan van Dijk and Estonian Andrus Aug being the fastest men in the line-up. Each of them won two stages. The GC favourites patiently waited for their chance on long individual time trial, and since they all were by then just 8 bonus seconds behind the Dutch leader it was very easy for them to take control of the race. Ondrej Sosenka from CCC-Mat turned out to be clearly the strongest specialist, comfortably beating German and Polish ITT champions - Thomas Liese (Nurnberger) and Piotr Przydzial (CCC)
Results1 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze) CCC-Mat 45.05 (50.306 km/h) 2 Thomas Liese (Ger) Nurnberger 1.06 3 Piotr Przydzial (Pol) CCC-Mat 1.59 4 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Mroz-Supradyn 2.10 5 Tomas Konecny (Cze) Domo-Farm Frites 2.23 6 Aleksander Klimienko (Ukr) Mikomax 2.26 7 Slawomir Kohut (Pol) Amore e Vita 2.32 8 Remigius Lupeikis (Ltu) Mroz 2.33 9 Russel van Hout (Aus) Selle Italia 2.40 10 Krzysztof Ciesielski (Pol) Servisco 2.56 General classification after stage 4b 1 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze) CCC-Mat 16.31.02 2 Thomas Liese (Ger) Nurnberger 1.06 3 Piotr Przydzial (Pol) CCC-Mat 1.59 4 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Mroz 2.10 5 Tomas Konecny (Cze) Wustenrot 2.23 Stage 5 - July 8: Skarzysko Kamienna - Lodz, 154 km
Results1 Andrus Aug (Est) Amore e Vita 3.43.15 2 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) Bankgiroloterij 3 Daniele Galli (Ita) Alexia 4 Thorsten Wilhelms (Ger) Nurnberger 5 Slawomir Chrzanowski (Pol) Weltour Radio Katowice 6 Michal Precechtel (Cze) Wustenrot 7 Andre Schulze (Ger) Wiesenhof 8 Tomas Konecny (Cze) Domo 9 Grzegorz Gronkiewicz (Pol) Weltour 10 Adam Wadecki (Pol) Mroz Final general classification 1 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze) CCC Mat 20.14.17 2 Thomas Liese (Ger) Nurnberger 1.06 3 Piotr Przydzial (Pol) CCC Mat 1.59 4 Piotr Chmielewski (Pol) Mroz 2.10 5 Tomas Konecny (Cze) Wustenrot 2.23 6 Aleksander Klimienko (Ukr) Mikomax 2.26 7 Slawomir Kohut (Pol) Amore e Vita 2.32 8 Remigius Lupeikis (Ltu) Mroz 2.33 9 Russel van Hout (Aus) Selle Italia 2.40 10 Krzysztof Ciesielski (Pol) Servisco 2.56 Intermediate sprints 1 Slawomir Chrzanowski (Pol) Weltour Radio Katowice Points classification 1 Stefan van Dijk (Ned) Bankgiroloterij Climbers classification 1 Enrico Nikolai (Ger) Wiesenhof Young riders competition Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Collstrop Courtesy of Daniel Marszalek |