History

The first ever edition of the Tour de Pologne was held in 1928, when native Polish Feliks Wiecek became the first winner.

The race wasn't ridden for some years, in 1930-1932, 1934-1936, 1938 and 1946 there was no Tour of Poland. In 1949 the Tour de Pologne had the first non-Polish winner with the Italian Francesco Locatelli beating his opponents. Until the 1990's the race had, under communist control, only been for amateurs. The first professional winning was Dariusz Baranowski, who with 3 victories now holds the record of most overall victories.

In 2005 the Tour de Pologne became part of the UCI ProTour, despite resistance of some cycling fans who preferred to see the Course de la Paix, a race with more history, in the ProTour. In 2011 the Tour de Pologne became part of the newly formed WorldTour.

Last year

In 2012, the second time in the WorldTour, the Tour de Pologne presented an interesting startlist, with several possible winners. Thanks to winning stage 1 and stage 6 Moreno Moser beat the Pole Kwiatkowski for GC-victory.

The Route

For the first time in history the Tour de Pologne starts outside Poland, with stage 1 and two being held in the Italian Alps.

Stage 1 is immediately one of a significant difficulty. After two shorter mountains the riders climb to the skiing resort of Madonna di Campiglio, which lies at an altitude of 1522 meters. The climbers should feel very well here and the first GC contestants may already lose it here.


Stage 2 is undoubtely the most difficult stage in Italy. Three tough climbs, of which one is the finish. The Passo Pampeago, known from stage 19 of this year's Giro, the Passo Costalunga and finally the Passo Pordoi, with an altitude of 2239m should form a serious problem for weak climbers. Unless something weird happens you can't win the GC here, but many will lose any left GC aspiration.


After two mountain stages and a quick travel to Poland the organisation has decided to give the riders an easy stage. However, the length of 220 kilometers might hurt a lot of legs after two tough days.


Stage 4 is quite hilly and once again very long, with 231.5km. Some sprinters with a good punch and a good stamina might hang on, but even a breakaway isn't unlikely.


It's not over yet. Stage 5 may be short, but it has some very tough hills on the way, which might become too much for several sprinters. It shouldn't form too much of a problem for the climbers and punchers though, who might aim on a stage win if the break is pulled back. That said, the pack might take a day off and let the break go.


The organisators of this race should pick up a dictionary and look for the word mercy. The traditional stage to Bukowina Tatrzanska is a very tough one, likely too tough for many riders. For many riders it's one final chance to turn the GC in their luck, considering the final stage.


The final stage isn't very easy either. The lenght of 37km is quite short, but it has to be covered individually. This is the very last stage of the Tour de Pologne, and it will obviously shake up the GC once again, perhaps including the winner.

The riders

A quick look at the startlist teaches us that this edition has an experiment with smaller teams. Where past editions usually had 8 riders per team, this year we only see 6 riders on each team. This may mean more safety and less breakaway control in the peloton. It'll be interesting to see how these smaller teams affect the racing styles.

Of last year's podium, all riders are present. However, it's unlikely title defendant Moreno Moser is likely to win again. Sergio Henao and Michal Kwiatkowski are better climbers than him and should do better. With a good TT it's safe to say Kwiatkowski is even one of the top favourites for this year. Other contenders should be Henao's team mate Rigoberto Urán, who has a good TT and is excellent in the high mountains. Kim Po-Ding is another contender for the GC. The North Korean must be disappointed to see the deteriorization of Poland after abandoning the communism, but will try to prove the superiority of communism with a good climbing skill and an excellent TT. Bauke Mollema will need to take a gap in the mountains, as he lacks TT compared to opponents like Kwiatkowski. Native rider Rafal Majka and Belgian Jurgen van den Broeck are also contenders, although the Belgian usually improves later in a stage race. Finally Dan Martin, who has had a decent season so far, is also a contender. However, his bad TT might cost him a good result. Other contenders include Rui Costa, Cristiano de las Campos, Ivan Basso, Robert Kiserlovski, Andrew Talansky, Pierre Rolland, Christian de Vries and Romain Bardet.

Sprinter-wise, the field is relatively weak due to the lack of real flat stages. For these stages, Tyler Farrar is a contender. His main rivals are probably going to be Luka Mezgec, Daniele Bennati, Thor Hushovd, Andrea Guardini, Kenny van Hummel, Ariel Richeze and Aidis Kruopis.

For the time trial, we see some specialists have travelled towards here. Drago di Silvestro, Jonathan Castroviejo, Stef Clement and Svein Tuft will all have a hard time beating Kwiatkowski though.

We can see that there are 9 Poles on the startlist. With Kwiatkowski and Majka there are two serious contenders for the GC. Furthermore Damian Owniak should do well and the riders of native Polish team CCC should be part of many breaks.

Finally, we'll take a look at the EPIC riders present. Apart from the earlier mentioned ones we also see Oreste Ghita for Argos, Heimdall Hägg, Ioannis Dimitriou and José Alberto Suarez for NetApp, Richard Löwenherz for Katusha, Albert Llanet for Movistar and Jamel Johnson for Champion System. All of them should be able to at least perform something, most likely in a possibly succeeding breakaway.

Favourites

***	Michal Kwiatkowski
**	Rigoberto Urán, Kim Po-Ding
*	Bauke Mollema, Rafal Majka, Daniel Martin

Conclusion

It's likely we'll see an interesting battle at many fronts. We're all looking forward to a hopefully spectacular 2013 Tour de Pologne.

The Rider wrote:
Well done with the preview Selwink.

- Ollfardh denying active teams many points here by sending that OPQS line-up to Poland.

Doesn't look like Fabian will be winning this Eneco Tour but he is well on his way to the much needed top5 finish. Can we make it three stage wins on the final stage?

Shonak wrote:
Great... UCI said easy goal Top 10 Pologne. Pfft. Barte for Top 10 please.

@Selwink: Sorry, didn't know. I tend to just make a double post when I want to skip a page.

Shonak wrote:
Great... UCI said easy goal Top 10 Pologne. Pfft. Barte for Top 10 please.

@Selwink: Sorry, didn't know. I tend to just make a double post when I want to skip a page.

Selwink wrote:


Never mind. Perhaps I should have done exactly that

Ollfardh wrote:
Another great report by the way, can't wait for the last one, as you excel on the cobbles

Ollfardh wrote:
Well, where are Konig or Birt?

mvhoogdalem wrote:
Bad stage in the Eneco Tour for us, but wasn't expecting much. Only Sagan is capable of beating Phil anyway.

Moser for a stage win and Basso to fail horribly again.