The countdown is over, everything is ready for the start of the 77th Tour de Pologne – UCI World Tour which will kick off tomorrow from the Slaski stadium in Chorz\u00f3w with a 198 km open stage. From the 5th to the 9th of August five exciting stages are scheduled from Chorz\u00f3w to Krakow.<\/p>\n
The top riders are ready to fight for victory: Remco Evenepoel, Simon Yates, Maximilian Schachmann and Jakob Fuglsang among others, with the latter two demonstrating great form last Saturday. For the sprinters’ battle all eyes are on Fabio Jakobsen, Pascal Ackermann and Dylan Groenewegen, while on the mountain stages Il\u2019nur Zakarin and Esteban Chaves are without question the names expected to do well. Also, it\u2019s impossible to forget brilliant outsiders like Tomasz Marczynski, Tim Wellens and Jasper Stuyven, who are certainly capable of spicing the race up.<\/p>\n
The iconic rainbow jerseys will complete the starting grid with Mads Pedersen, current Elite Road World Champion and Samuele Battistella, the last U23 World Champion. Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)<\/strong> ‘I’ve never been at the Tour de Pologne but I\u2019ve heard a lot about it. I am excited to be here even if it’s a race known for being intense. I checked the route and it seems just great. I always want to learn new things and test myself; I don’t know exactly what to expect to be honest. I will for sure do my best to be ready for the most demanding stages, the 3rd and the 4th especially. The new calendar changed things a little so there might be some surprises. We’ll all need to pay close attention at every stage of the race. I will give everything I have to support the Wolfpack.<\/em><\/p>\n Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)<\/strong><\/p>\n ‘It will be my first time participating in the Tour de Pologne but my teammates told me it\u2019s a really nice route and a great race, so I\u2019m happy to be able to take part in it. I had a good altitude camp in Livigno and now I\u2019m looking forward to finally restarting the season again. Strade Bianche was the first legs\u2019 test and now I\u2019m facing my first stage race with the Tour de Pologne.’<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ‘My first race back last week gave me lot of confidence for the work done and for the rest of the season; we need to keeping working without rushing. Now we know a bit more about the performance in comparison to the other guys and also what\u2019s working well and what we are missing. Plenty time to work on that. Stages three and four will be the most important for us; we can play really well with the climbers even if they are more hilly and punchy rather than pure mountains. More days of racing are good for my leg strength, especially for the goals after Poland.’<\/em><\/p>\n Rafal<\/strong> Majka (Team Bora-hansgrohe): “I\u2019m very excited to be competing in my home race, the Tour de Pologne. It\u2019s always a great experience to race a World Tour event on Polish roads. We\u2019re bringing a versatile and strong team, with several options for the GC, like Max Schachmann, Patrick Konrad and myself, and then Pascal Ackermann for the sprints. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be able to count on my teammates for the best support, as always. I\u2019ve just finished my first stage race since the season recommenced, and despite being involved in a crash on the first day of the event, I\u2019m feeling better day by day. I\u2019m looking forward to bringing our fantastic Polish supporters some exciting days of racing.’<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI really much look forward to this race. It\u2019s my first UCI WorldTour race after the lockdown actually, so I am really excited. I was here also last year and I loved it. It\u2019s a nice race with a nice parcours. I cannot wait to sprint here. I checked the route and it seems that the first two stages and the last suit me well, so I think I have enough chances to show my fast legs. We have a really good team and, for sure, we\u2019re going to race for the GC as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Sport directors<\/p>\n Klaas Lodewyck (Deceuninck – Quick-Step)<\/strong><\/p>\n “Thinking of the five stages of this year’s Tour de Pologne, I\u2019d say it doesn\u2019t change that much for us, as three of the five stages are for sprinters and the other two are perfect for the GC. We definitely have enough time to make the race hard and aggressive and fight for the General Classification and have to pay attention to not lose any time with our GC guys. The team stayed the same as planned before knowing it was shortened, we didn\u2019t have to change anything.”<\/p>\n Mathew Hayman (Mitchelton – Scott)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019ve got all bases covered. We\u2019re coming in with Luka Mezgec who won two stages in Poland last year, and we\u2019re using a couple of the same finishes, so obviously he\u2019ll be keen to get back to racing. So, on the flatter days we will be looking after Luka, whilst Daryl Impey will also get opportunities as well. We\u2019ve got a pretty hit squad of climbers with Chaves, Yates, and Nieve coming out of Burgos and showing good form there, as well as Zeits coming in for his first race back. It was pretty encouraging what we saw in Burgos, the guys were riding really well, and riding well as a team, and just excited to get back to racing. We\u2019re racing in the same areas we\u2019ve done in the past; a different course but the same types of stages. There\u2019s two hilly stages, I wouldn\u2019t call them mountain stages; so, we\u2019ll be looking for opportunities on those two days, stages three and four, to see if we can go for a good GC result too.\u201d<\/p>\n Yaroslav Popovych (Trek – Segafredo)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis year the Tour of Poland will be two stages shorter than traditionally. I believe this is due to the coronavirus situation, but it\u2019s not detrimental for us. We have a really strong team here and in four out of the five stages we have the opportunity to do really well. Only the second to last stage is a mountain stage; all the others should end in a sprint. We have several options to fight for a result. We have Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven, Edward Theuns, and we have Emils Liepins. Most of them have already raced since the season restarted in Burgos, so we hope for a good performance here in Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The countdown is over, everything is ready for the start of the 77th Tour de Pologne – UCI World Tour … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nQUOTES FROM THE PELOTON <\/strong>Riders<\/u><\/p>\n