GP Weltour - 1.5

Poland, May 1, 2002

2001 Results Results Past winners

Chris Fisher clinches victory at Grand Prix Weltour

By Giana Roberge, Team Saturn

Following up on last week's strong racing in the four day Gradowy Piastowskich Tour where Chris Fisher finished tenth overall, the Saturn team moved over to the South central region of Poland around Katovice and Sosnowiec to compete in the GP Weltour and celebrated their first victory of this European campaign.

The race started in the big city of Sosnoweic with a 30 kilometre leg out to a hilly 15 kilometre circuit through the town of Lazy that the riders completed 10 times. With attacks from the gun, the Saturn Team worked hard to consistently place someone in the early moves. Finally, just before the circuit, a group of six including eventual race winner, Saturn's Fisher, started to put time on the peloton. With all the powerful Polish teams including the Mroz team represented the main group was happy and the break reached a maximum of a 2:40 gap.

However, as the race progressed, a chasing group of six caught Fisher's group. With two laps to go the break was whittled down to five riders: Fisher, two Mroz and two Servisco riders. The Mroz riders Aleksander Klimienko and Spigniew Piatek tried many times to attack counter attack but Fisher was always able to pull them back or shut them down right away. Saturn's Damon Kluck finally made contact with the chase group, and although close to Fisher's group, Kluck's group of seven was never able to make contact with the leading five.

The final time up the climb Piatek again attacked and Fisher and the Servisco rider Robert Radosz followed. This newly formed trio worked extremely hard all the way to the line to keep the 2 man and 7 man chase groups at bay. Fisher came around Piatek on the inside of the last corner 100m from the line and held him off easily for a very popular victory even in front the all Polish crowd. The crowd loved the Americans and mobbed Fisher at the podium for autographs. The Saturn Team also donated an autographed jersey for an auction to benefit a local children's school.

Results, 180km

1 Chris Fisher (USA) Saturn                         4.28.05 (40.29 km/h)
2 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Mróz                           
3 Robert Radosz (Pol) Servisco-Koop                    
4 Aleksander Klimienko (Ukr) Mróz                      0.10
5 Krzysztof Ciesielski (Pol) Servisco-Koop             
6 Przemyslaw Mikolajczyk (Pol) Servisco-Koop           0.19
7 Aleksiej Nakazny (Ukr) Mikomax                     
8 Wojciech Pawlak (Pol) KTK Krzemionka              
9 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek               
10 Eugen Wacker (Kzg) Mróz                          
11 Damon Kluck (USA) Saturn                         
12 Artur Krasinski (Pol) Mikomax                    
13 Jacek Walczak (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek                0.27
14 Daniel Czajkowski (Pol) Servisco-Koop               6.58
15 Marek Blazej (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek               
16 Tomasz Kiendys (Pol) Mikomax                      
17 Grzegorz Zoledziowski (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek      
18 Sebastian Martyniak (Pol) Cyklista Zyrardow       
19 Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol) Ambra                   7.04
20 Wojciech Kalemba (Pol) Weltour                      7.55
21 Tomasz Czapelski (Pol) CCC Olimpijczyk Konskie      8.00
22 Pawel Bentkowski (Pol) KTK Krzemionka               8.43
23 Michal Sikora (Pol) Kolejarz Czestochowa           
24 Krzysztof Jezowski (Pol) Mikomax                   
25 Jaroslaw Welniak (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek            
26 Marek Kaminski (Pol) Servisco-Koop                 
27 Daniel Rudnicki (Pol) Legia Bazyliszek             
28 Grzegorz Wajs (Pol) Ambra                           9.59
29 Michal Kalenda (Pol) Ambra                         10.47
30 Grzegorz Kwiatkowski (Pol) Weltour                 
31 Sergiej Sawieliew (Ukr) Mikomax                    
32 Dariusz Miskiewicz (Pol) CCC Olimpijczyk Konskie   11.00

Starters: 97
Classified: 32

Courtesy of Grzesiek Kaczmarzyk and Daniel Marszalek

Past winners

2001 Piotr Przydzial (Pol) CCC MAT
2000 Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Mróz-Supradyn