Tour de Pologne 2014 (2.WT), 03.08 - 09.08

[The Hitch]

God this is even worse than the TDF.

 

[Tournesol]

God this is even worse than the TDF.

Your exaggerating,its nowhere near as bad.

 

[Berlin Cyclingblog]

Matthews would be my outside bet for tomorows stage.

 

[Akuryo]

Vakoc said this climb suits his skill-set very well. He knows it from a race he did last year. It is supposed to be short and steep. He expects to keep the jersey. I really hope he can do it. Then there is just one more day, because we know he can time trial.

 

[Escarabajo]

i've seen those thanks. looks ridiculously easy. what a crrap route this year, go back to the dolomites!

Based on the charts I estimated the climb to be 8.4 kms at 6.12% gradient.

I could be a little higher but around that neighborhood.

 

[Flamin]

Nope, it's softer:

The last ascent has an extra 1,5k drag till the finish. According to the stage profile, it's 1,5 @ 6,9% but that profile of the last 3k on the official site says it's only 5%.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I didn't know the climbs in this race where this ****ty this year. This way even Vakoc might hold.

 

[manafana]

God this is even worse than the TDF.

your like a grumpy old man only pleased by crazy mountain stages, route is what it is, let the riders make the racing

 

[Dazed and Confused]

your like a grumpy old man only pleased by crazy mountain stages, route is what it is, let the riders make the racing

For me, variation is key. Four bog standard flat stages in a row in a 7 stage race just isn't compelling. Lots of TV time with very little entertaining. Anyway the Poles are coming out in force at the finish line and that must be a good thing.

For the record, I don't like the idea of 10 MTFs in the Vuelta either.

Pics: http://www.steephill.tv/2014/tour-de-pologne/photos/stage-04/

 

[Anderis]

i've seen those thanks. looks ridiculously easy. what a crrap route this year, go back to the dolomites!

Sadly, we don't have Alps or Pyrenees in Poland or just outside Poland's border. There's simply no option to have a long and steep stage-ending climb anywhere here with current state of things. And there's no option to go to Italy every single year.

The route could be better maybe, but there's no option to have a climb 5+kms long with 7%+ average gradient. There are very few of them here and neither of them has infrastructure good enough to have a stage there.

You need to accept the fact Tour de Pologne isn't and won't be a proper race for climbers anywhere in the near future. At least not every single year. We had guys like Sagan, Bole, Ballan and Hagen on the overall GC podium over the years, it has always been like that.

Here's the exact profile of the mountain from today's finish.

 

[willbick]

Maybe thats a good climb for Weining?

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Poland is such a big country, it's only naturally that the wide open plains which make up 90 % of the country get a proper share of the race. I would love to see some more stages along the Baltic Sea.

There are already loads of mountain-rich stage races especially in the World Tour, no need to create another artificial one here.

 

[Fzotrlool]

Here's the exact profile of the mountain from today's finish.

Ideal for a reduced bunch sprint? It looks similar to the Montecassino climb of the Giro where Michael Matthews won. Monotone, rolling and with low gradients.

 

[tomorrow]

Ideal for a reduced bunch sprint? It looks similar to the Montecassino climb of the Giro where Michael Matthews won. Monotone, rolling and with low gradients.

this is only the part of the hill, which is repeated, the final ascent is spiced with 16% section coming to the finish, followed by approximatly 1km of 3-5% again. Please take the percentages are just my estimation, as I have been there many times

 

[Tournesol]

Velits ftw. Home territory.Would like to see him win too.Come on Peter!!

 

[virenque216]

Huty

Reports from one slovak cycling forum say that place of category 2 climb Huty is completely paralised with 50 000 to 70 000 spectators scattered around in region of 2 to 3km and trafic has collapsed completely organisers dont know what to do at the minute, not sure if we going to see any videos later of it, but looks interesting, hoping for good crowds at Strbske Pleso later, I think Peter Sagan's succcess has got a lot to do with it.

Here is Slovak version of news in Huty:


Huty, kde bude o necele dve hodiny horska premia su uplne paralizovane, doprava totalne skolabovala, stovky aut popri trati a mnozstvo uviaznutych priamo v strede vozovky, organizatori si nevedia dat rady...pri trati uz teraz mozno 50 000-70 000 ludi na 2-3 km, atmosfera ako na TDF...Toto pisali na jednom fore, musi tam byt famozna atmosfera, snad s tou dopravou to stihnu a ukazeme svetu, ako zijeme cyklistikou a vieme usporiadat top podujatia na svetovej urovni

 

[ILovecycling]

Velits ftw. Home territory.Would like to see him win too.Come on Peter!!

That would be very nice,climb is not steep and he can sprint too.
My pick is Formolo tho

 

[ILovecycling]

Reports from one slovak cycling forum say that place of category 2 climb Huty is completely paralised with 50 000 to 70 000 spectators scattered around in region of 2 to 3km and trafic has collapsed completely organisers dont know what to do at the minute, not sure if we going to see any videos later of it, but looks interesting, hoping for good crowds at Strbske Pleso later, I think Peter Sagan's succcess has got a lot to do with it.

Here is Slovak version of news in Huty:


Huty, kde bude o necele dve hodiny horska premia su uplne paralizovane, doprava totalne skolabovala, stovky aut popri trati a mnozstvo uviaznutych priamo v strede vozovky, organizatori si nevedia dat rady...pri trati uz teraz mozno 50 000-70 000 ludi na 2-3 km, atmosfera ako na TDF...Toto pisali na jednom fore, musi tam byt famozna atmosfera, snad s tou dopravou to stihnu a ukazeme svetu, ako zijeme cyklistikou a vieme usporiadat top podujatia na svetovej urovni

Fantastic

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

If the steep extra section in the MTF is difficult enough, I'm going for Poels or Arredondo.

If the extra section of the final MTF isn't that difficult, lot's of people could win, even guys like Matthews or Boasson Hagen in a sprint or just anybody who can get over a hill with a strong day, a well timed attack and a bit of luck.

Jungels ftw for the GC, or maybe even Meyer

 

[virenque216]

above is the aerial view of Finishing area

 

[Netserk]

If only they would drop the ITT (and the weird bonus seconds system) and add another hilly circuit.

 

[Bushman]

Majka for the stage win.

 

[KubaWinter]

Majka is constantly saying that he is tired after Giro and Tour, so he's unsure if he could do something. However, with good shape he should make some show. Sylwester Szmyd reassured that he would be happy to help win Majka - another transfer movement? And never forget about Przemek Niemiec, who is still looking for good result after crash-affected Giro.

 

[jens_attacks]

Reports from one slovak cycling forum say that place of category 2 climb Huty is completely paralised with 50 000 to 70 000 spectators scattered around in region of 2 to 3km and trafic has collapsed completely organisers dont know what to do at the minute, not sure if we going to see any videos later of it, but looks interesting, hoping for good crowds at Strbske Pleso later, I think Peter Sagan's succcess has got a lot to do with it.

Here is Slovak version of news in Huty:


Huty, kde bude o necele dve hodiny horska premia su uplne paralizovane, doprava totalne skolabovala, stovky aut popri trati a mnozstvo uviaznutych priamo v strede vozovky, organizatori si nevedia dat rady...pri trati uz teraz mozno 50 000-70 000 ludi na 2-3 km, atmosfera ako na TDF...Toto pisali na jednom fore, musi tam byt famozna atmosfera, snad s tou dopravou to stihnu a ukazeme svetu, ako zijeme cyklistikou a vieme usporiadat top podujatia na svetovej urovni

if that's true, it's awesome. we'll see
vakoc will survive today i guess anyway. i hope majka is strong

 

[damian13ster]

If only they would drop the ITT (and the weird bonus seconds system) and add another hilly circuit.

Agreed. If you want a show, put a short prologue on a first stage, then have it followed by 3 flat stages to get from Baltic Sea to the hilly terrain. After that 2 hard hilly stages (i really like Bukowina Stage) and 1 hard mountain stage (in Slovakia since conditions in Poland don't allow it)