74. Tour de Pologne (2.UWT), July 29 - August 4

[dick the quick]

The Tour is over, but the cycling season goes on. Those who have scheduled their objectives for the second half of the season, now begin their preparation races campaign. The first opportunity to test the legs – which should suit well both Vuelta GC suspects and the WC candidates – is the Tour de Pologne.

This year, the race organizers decided to bring some changes to the traditional route design. With a combination of three flat stages and four hilly/medium mountain stages (including two hilltop finishes), and without time trial, the race should be quite open until the very end.

Route details:

Stage 1: Kraków - Kraków, 130 km (flat)

A short, flat stage around the historical capital city of Poland. The terrain seems to be rolling
(please look at the scaling of the profile above, but it provides for no real difficulties. A single GPM and intermediate sprint, just to distribute the classification leader jerseys. Most likely, the early break will be caught before the final laps in Kraków, then the first race leader should be selected in a bunch sprint.

Stage 2: Tarnowskie Góry - Katowice, 142 km (flat)

Very similar stage concept as on previous day: a short and flat passage through the Upper Silesia industry region (stage profile is again confusing). This time, some more intermediate sprints and “just-for-fun” GPMs are scheduled to make the race more interesting. But at the end of the day, it should conclude in the same way as stage one (bunch sprint).

Stage 3: Jaworzno - Szczyrk,161 km (medium mountain, HTF)

First test for those who are interested in the GC. The riders will have to face some real (even if not very difficult) climbs before they final difficulty of the day: a short but steep uphill way to the finish line.

Stage 4: Zawiercie - Zabrze, 238 km (flat)

The longest stage of the race, completely flat starting from the 50 km until the finish line. Nothing more to add.

Stage 5: Nagawczyna - Rzeszów, 130 km (hilly)

Right after the longest stage comes the shortest one. Several short but steep climbs distributed all over the way (the last one 10 km before finish line) may be a favourable terrain for classic specialists.

Stage 6: Wieliczka - Zakopane, 189 km (medium mountain)

A 100 km long in-run into the Polish Tatra mountains region, then a 60 km long lap including 5 categorized climbs in the rolling terrain around Zakopane.

Stage 7: Bukowina Tatrzańska – Bukowina Tatrzańska, 132 km (medium mountain, HTF)

The final stage of the race is effectively a 2 x 66 km long lap on the narrow roads of Podhale region. Each lap provides for three categorized climbs, making it six in total. The finish line is also on top of the climb (uncategorized).

Participants:

All 18 WT teams (mandatory participation) + 4 wildcards (CCC, Gazprom, Novo Nordisk and Poland national team composed of CT riders). Only 7 riders per team.

Some bigger names:

- expected Vuelta GC contenders (Costa, Formolo, Jungels, Kelderman, Majka, Nibali, Poels, Pozzovivo, Reichenbach, Rosa, Sanchez, TJVG, A. Yates, Zakarin)
- sprinters (Bonifazio, Debusschere, Ewan, Mezgec, Modolo, Savitskiy, van Poppel, Walscheid)
- a separate category: P.Sagan (he decided to participate after his TdF has ended (too) early).

Ag2R (Geniez, Pozzovivo)
Astana (Breschel, Moser)
Bahrain (Bonifazio , Nibali, Visconti)
BMC (Dennis, Sanchez, TJVG)
Bora (Konrad, Majka, P.Sagan)
Cannondale (Dombrowski, Formolo)
CCC (Hirt, Tratnik)
Dimension Data (Berhane, Sbaragli, Teklehaimanot)
FdJ (Morabito, Reichenbach)
Gazprom (Savitskiy)
Katusha (Spilak, Zakarin)
Lotto.nl-Jumbo
Lotto-Soudal (Debusschere, Monfort, Valls)
Movistar (Anacona, Izagirre)
Novo Nordisk
Orica (Ewan, A.Yates)
Poland national team
Quickstep (Jungels, Schachmann)
Sky (Poels, Rosa)
Sunweb (Kelderman, Oomen)
Trek (van Poppel)
UAE (Costa, Modolo)

Full startlist (provisional) is avalaible here: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_Pologne_2017_Startlist

 

[Laplaz]

Hopefully Nibali will deliver.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Hopefully Nibali will deliver.

Nibali never delivers in Poland. Majka ftw

 

[dick the quick]

Some more detailed climb profiles - stage 3 (all the profiles from http://www.altimetr.pl):

Przełęcz Salmopolska from Szczyrk

Przełęcz Szarcula (Zameczek) (two times)

Przełęcz Salmopolska from Wisła

 

[Anderis]

Formolo has been very good in this race for a few years in row but always hampered by an ITT. I wonder if he can deliver on a route that suits him more this year.

Good luck with pronouncing start and finish locations for anyone who doesn't speak Polish.

 

[liamito]

Remembering last year, how will the weather be?

 

[dick the quick]

Climb profiles - stage 7:

Łapszanka (two times)

Sierockie (two times)

Gliczarów Górny (two times)

Bukowina Tatrzańska (two times)

 

[carolina]

Please do not include Costa in the list of Vuelta GC contenders. You're just feeding his delusions...

 

[ihosama]

Up to stage 6 Sagan in race leader, if he decides to race. The sprinter field is not too good. The fans be all there and, after TdF events, would not be suprised for Poles to cheer Sagan more than usual.

On Stage 7 Sagan to catapult Majka for a stage and GC win.

Overall, with both Sagan, Majka and rest of team well-rested, this looks like a Bora-festival in the making.

Given how flat Poland is, the route seems sensible and especialy the long flat stage is how you do it - if you absolutely have to have flat stages.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Formolo has been very good in this race for a few years in row but always hampered by an ITT. I wonder if he can deliver on a route that suits him more this year.

Good luck with pronouncing start and finish locations for anyone who doesn't speak Polish.

Is Szczyrk even a word?

 

[wouterkaas]

Re:

Remembering last year, how will the weather be?

Haha, one stage wiping out half the field. And I will never forget the profile of the stage the day after, that was cancelled due to bad weather:

Looks brutal

 

[Netserk]

Sagan for the win

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Remembering last year, how will the weather be?

Haha, one stage wiping out half the field. And I will never forget the profile of the stage the day after, that was cancelled due to bad weather:

Looks brutal

It's used every year. It's decisive but not nearly as hard as it looks because the climbs are quite shallow. Most of it is below 5%. The stage that eliminated the field is far far harder.

Here's that stage from previous years, notice gaps between GC men are in seconds:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=149971
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=139119
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=116973
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=113051

and so on

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

Is Szczyrk even a word?

The szcz sounds similar to the "shch" in "girlish charm".
Add the "irk" from a Scottish "kirk" (roll the r a bit).
If you can do that you're pretty close

If Majka is recovered from his TdF crash, he will be the man to beat.

The forecast says sunny and around 30 degrees for the start, but in the Beskidy and Tatra mountains, one day it can be sunny and in the mid 20s and the next day heavy rain and around 15, so it's a bit of a lottery.

I like the parcours (as someone said you can't avoid the plains in Poland, but you always have a really good medium mountain stage or two).

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Is Szczyrk even a word?

The szcz sounds similar to the "shch" in "girlish charm".
Add the "irk" from a Scottish "kirk" (roll the r a bit).
If you can do that you're pretty close

If Majka is recovered from his TdF crash, he will be the man to beat.

The forecast says sunny and around 30 degrees for the start, but in the Beskidy and Tatra mountains, one day it can be sunny and in the mid 20s and the next day heavy rain and around 15, so it's a bit of a lottery.

I like the parcours (as someone said you can't avoid the plains in Poland, but you always have a really good medium mountain stage or two).

Thank you, I have always loved the Polish language for its way of stringing consonants which to me seem random and then make a perfectly sounding word. I suppose non-Brits find some place names here hard as well, like Leicester or Gloucester, or even Tottenham (totnum).

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

Thank you, I have always loved the Polish language for its way of stringing consonants which to me seem random and then make a perfectly sounding word. I suppose non-Brits find some place names here hard as well, like Leicester or Gloucester, or even Tottenham (totnum).

Loughborough is the best There are at least 7 ways of pronouncing -ough

p.s. The Poles joke about the prevalence of consonants in Czech,

e.g. back of the neck: in Polish "kark" in Czech "krk" (r is a vowel :surprised: )

In Polish ice cream is the benign word "lody", in Czech it's the straight from hell "zmrzlina"

 

[MotorRouleur]

Pologne. Best podium girls. Ever.

 

[Oliver]

Sagan's revenge?

 

[yaco]

A strong GC field for Poland - Will be interesting to see how strong the CC contenders are and how much they wish to show in the mountains - Sprinters field lacks depth outside of Sagan and Ewan.

 

[tobydawq]

Sagan is ready for the challenge. He has even gone bald to be better prepared for the hills!

No, I think it's too hard for him - but I will be very surprised if he doesn't win the Binckbank Tour the following week.

 

[ihosama]

Re:

Sagan is ready for the challenge. He has even gone bald to be better prepared for the hills!

No, I think it's too hard for him - but I will be very surprised if he doesn't win the Binckbank Tour the following week.

I would not say too hard. There are a lot of climbs but no Mont Ventoux between them and a lot of descents. So both classics guys and climbers should have a chance, making the last stages quite open.

If Majka is indeed horribly unlucky and out of contention before st. 6, Sagan may go for it. He did not target GC on ToC 2015 either.

Outside the first flat stages, we should get a raced race. For a change.

 

[tobydawq]

Well, if he can pull something like Tirreno-Adriatico off again, then I agree. I hope he wins but find it a bit unlikely, I must admit.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Well, if he can pull something like Tirreno-Adriatico off again, then I agree. I hope he wins but find it a bit unlikely, I must admit.

I agree it's unlikely. As he said after Tirreno, he only managed it because he was somewhat rested from soft pedalling the previous day's mountain stage while the climbers had gone all out

 

[Moviefan1203]

I'd like to see Dombrowski go well. Been a very disappointing season for him so far.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Well, if he can pull something like Tirreno-Adriatico off again, then I agree. I hope he wins but find it a bit unlikely, I must admit.

I agree it's unlikely. As he said after Tirreno, he only managed it because he was somewhat rested from soft pedalling the previous day's mountain stage while the climbers had gone all out

Yes, that's true. On the other hand, those seven 20% ramps in the final 30 km were completely different to what awaits here and they were probably harder overall. But he probably benefited from his great anaerobic proficiency (and the fatigue of others), so this is likely to be more difficult for him.

But then again, for a Sagan on Tour form, this is not impossible. Whether he is on Tour form is questionable, though.