T-Mobile's Marco Pinotti featured in a five-man breakaway that escaped on the first of three laps of the mountainous circuit in southern Poland.

However, the breakaway which was later reduced to three – Pinotti, Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) and Yoann Le Boulanger (Bouygues Telecom) – were caught on the final lap and a sixty-strong lead group formed after many riders lost contact on the testing climbs.

CSC's Fabian Cancellara attacked 1200 meters before the line but was caught again.

"We had both Fränk, Andy (Schleck), Jens (Voigt), Fabian and Bobby (Julich) in the front group and then Fabian attacked with only 1.2 kilometers to go. He almost made it, but was caught about 100 meters from the finish line. But this means we have a good shot at the queen stage, which rounds off the race tomorrow," said CSC sports director Alain Gallopin.

In the finale Tour stage winner Pozzato proved too strong for Rojas and Gent-Wevelgem winner Burghardt.

Fränk Schleck (CSC) was involved in a crash during todays stage: "It was a pretty serious crash, which Fränk was involved in so he's badly bruised on one side of his body, but he made it through the stage and we're hoping he'll be ok for tomorrow. The doctors think he's okay, but of course the pain might take some of his energy for the final stage," said Team CSC's sports director Alain Gallopin

The seven-day tour concludes on Saturday with its traditional tricky finish at the ski resort of Karpacy at 800m.