Weening wins Tour of Poland

News & Results

08/3/2013| 0 comments
by Mark Watson
Pieter Weening on the podium in Poland Fotoreporter Sirotti

Weening wins Tour of Poland

Pieter Weening took his first overall victory in a WorldTour race when he won the Tour of Poland in Krakow earlier today. Team GreenEdge's Dutchman won the Tour de Pologne when he leapfrogged up to the highest spot on the general classification by finishing sixth in the final stage.

The final stage was won by Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky. Wiggins bested Fabian Cancellara (Team RadioShack), posting an untouchable winning time of 46:36 over the 37 kilometer individual time trial. Weening was the strongest of the general classification contenders in sixth place on the stage, finishing 1:44 behind Wiggins.

Weening secured four top ten stage results on his way to the overall victory. “Pieter has had the most consistent year of his career,” Team GreenEdge Sports Director Matt White explained. “He’s come close to several stage wins this season at Langkawi, the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta Pais Vasco and, of course, the Tour of Poland. After so many close calls, it’s especially good to see him hit this target.”

“It’s been a long, hard week,” Weening told Roadcycling.com and added “This is a big win for me. Winning at a WorldTour race is always a really important result. I’m satisfied with what we achieved here.”

“We did a recon (of the time trial route) this morning in the car instead of on the bike because I have already done enough kilometers this week,” Weening explained. “I saw from the beginning that it was a time trial that would be really good for me. It was a very varied route, always up and down, and I had to push a big gear all the time. That’s perfect for my capabilities.”

“I wasn’t thinking about winning while I did my time trial,” Weening continued. “I didn’t think much about the general classification result. I wanted to give everything one last time. That’s all I could do. I hoped it was enough for a good result on the general classification in the end.”

Weening had started the stage in fifth place, 27” behind overnight leader Christophe Riblon of Team AG2R-La Mondiale. Faster than Riblon at the intermediate time check, Weening had recouped enough time at the finish to win the overall by 13" over Riblon.

“Someone affiliated with the race organisation was standing near me,” Weening explained. “He had a race radio, and he was the one to deliver the good news. When he told me I had done it, I was pretty happy right away. This was a big goal.”

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