Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) claimed the rainbow jersey with a late attack in the Elite men’s road race in Ponferrada, Spain, after bravely taking the race to the big nations and big-name favourites.

The 24-year-old jumped clear with seven kilometres to go and despite a late chase he was able to hold off Simon Gerrans (Australia) and Alejandro Valverde (Spain) who took silver and bronze.

Kwiatkowski made his first move before the final climb of the race and quickly reeled in a break consisting of Cyril Gautier (France), Michael Valgren Andersen (Denmark), Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) and Alessandro De Marchi (Italy). It wasn’t long before the Pole was on the move again, dragging De Marchi and impressive first year professional Valgren Andersen with him. However the third acceleration was enough to distance his rivals as further down the climb the rest of the main favourites struggled to organise a chase.

It was Spain who had set the pace on the last lap but when Kwiatkowski attacked he caught the home team off-guard. Just before the summit the reaction from the peloton finally came with Valverde, Gerrans, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Matti Breschel (Denmark), ,Tony Gallopin (France), Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) going clear. Despite Gilbert’s efforts in the final kilometres the chase were not able to claw back Kwiatkowski’s slender lead, with the first ever Polish winner of the event enjoying enough of a gap to sail over the line and celebrate the win with his arms in the air.

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