The 81st Tour de Pologne UCI WorldTour will kick off in Wrocław
“Pride and joy fill me today, when we announce that this year’s Tour de Pologne will start in Wrocław” said the general director of the race, Czesław Lang. “Let this be the seed for further successes of cyclists from our region, because I believe that along the route there will be a lot of the youngest inhabitants of Wrocław and they will not remain indifferent to the beauty of the discipline” said Jacek Sutryk, the Mayor of Wrocław. During a press conference, it was announced that the 81st edition of the biggest annual sporting event in our part of Europe will start on 12 August in the capital of Lower Silesia from under the famous Centennial Hall. The day before, a presentation of the teams is planned in the same area.
The 2024 Tour de Pologne will begin immediately after the conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The cyclists will set off for Poland on Monday 12 August in Wrocław. The day before, the presentation of the teams will take place at the same venue. Peloton will start from under the Centennial Hall towards Karpacz. And the great race will last until Sunday 18 August.
Over a quarter of a century ago, Czesław Lang, Olympic vice-champion from Moscow and winner of the 1980 TdP, took lead of the race as an organiser and led it to the elite cycle of the UCI World Tour, which includes only the most important events in the cycling calendar. Today, the Tour de Pologne is a race that promotes Poland, all over the world thanks to its broadcast to more than 100 countries, and is seen in international cycling circles as an event that discovers new talents. Once again, ORLEN will be the main sponsor and general classification. Last year, the winner of the ORLEN leader’s yellow jersey and winner of the whole race was Slovenian Matej Mohorič.
“In the beginning there are goals and dreams, and then there is hard work. Step by step we have been building the Tour de Pologne and today it is Poland’s showcase in the world, as we reach all continents with our television coverage. I am glad that Wrocław is with us, because it is an exceptional city on the cycling map of Poland” said Czesław Lang, who was not the only winner of the race during the conference. Among the guests invited to the briefing were also Henryk Charucki, the winner of TdP in 1979, and Jan Brzeźny – a two-time triumpher of the event (1978, 1981).
– In the 1970s, it was Wrocław that showed the world the great cyclists, to mention just Ryszard Szurkowski, Jan Brzeźny or Henryk Charucki from the now defunct Dolmel club. Wrocław and its surroundings were a cycling basin. That’s why I’m glad that the Tour de Pologne will pass through Lower Silesia again, and that it will all start at the Centennial Hall. Let this be the foundation for further successes of cyclists from our region, because I believe that along the route there will be a lot of the youngest inhabitants of Wrocław and they will not be indifferent to the beauty of the discipline. On the other hand, as a city we will not change our course and we will continue to develop the cycling infrastructure so that Wrocław can go around in circles, to refer to one of our projects promoting cycling or the cycling lifestyle,” says Jacek Sutryk, Mayor of Wrocław. The mayor also recalled that Wrocław has been betting on bicycles for a long time.
– We have 1400 km of cycle-friendly routes. Nearly 100 km of new routes were built in the closing term of the local government alone, and more than 100 million zlotys were earmarked for cycling investments. We have 2,400 bicycles in the city’s bicycle hire system (including electrics, cargo and tandems), which in our case is year-round! That’s 220 stations of the Wrocław Urban Bicycle and around 2 million rentals per year. We have such social programmes as Rowerowy Maj or “W kółko kręcę”, which encourages people to extend the season and use bicycle routes until the end of November,” said Mayor Sutryk. In Wrocław, not only is dedicated cycling infrastructure being built and car traffic slowed down in housing estates. Today, there are 650 km of traffic-calmed streets in the city (out of a total of 1,074 km of streets under the management of ZDiUM), and you can also cycle in the Market Square (although with respect for pedestrians – it is a “slow zone”). There are more than 7,000 parking spaces for bicycles in the city, and the cycling action plan extends to 2030. This is also why cyclists are taken care of in Wrocław by a cycling officer, as well as the Office for Sustainable Mobility.
On 12 August in Wrocław, however, the cyclists will set off in full force as they begin a race for a place in cycling history.