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
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
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