Preview: Tour de Pologne. Classics riders, climbers and sprinters meet in tricky week of racing in Poland

Saturday, 30 July 2022 at 13:17

The World Tour peloton will be back to stage-racing into the final part of the season, as from the 30th of July to the 5th of August the best teams in the world will be riding the Tour de Pologne for a set of races that suit the sprinters and the classics riders.

The seven-day stage race features two opening days which should be fit for the sprinters, with arrivals in Lublin and Zamosc to favour the fast men with little challenge as they'll have the opportunity to take the first lead of the race.

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From stage three onward the race changes however, with three stages that have very mixed profiles, all however suited to the classics riders. Stage three into Przemysl will see a hilly finale and a hilltop finish which features gradients of up to 15%, in a final climb that has 1.5Km at 7.7%. Stage four has small climbs spread throughout the entire day, with a combination two ascents - 4.6Km at 5% and 4.8Km at 5.9% - inside the final 40 kilometers which may see attacks, and the punchy finale in Sanok will be equally challenging.

Stage five into Rzeszow will be another hilly one, albeit more suited to breakaways or a reduced bunch sprint as the climbs featured are not overly hard, and provide the opportunity for an open race. Stage six may be the queens stage, with an 11.8Km time-trial in the Zakopane area which will mostly be uphill and will create vital gaps. Stage seven will wrap off the race, with a hilly start but a finale that should be decided between the sprinters into Kraków.

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The final startlist includes: Mark Cavendish, Mauro Schmid, Andrea Vendrame, Phil Bauhaus, Sam Bennett, Sergio Higuita, Jordi Meeus, Simone Consonni, Arnaud Démare, Richard Carapaz, Ethan Hayter, Magnus Sheffield, Elia Viviani, Quinten Hermans, Olav Kooij, Kaden Groves, Thymen Arensman, Matteo Moschetti, Pascal Ackermann, Diego Ulissi, Jakub Mareczko, Tobias Johannessen and Stanislaw Aniolkowski.

CyclingUpToDate prediction:

**** Ethan Hayter

*** Sergio Higuita, Richard Carapaz

** Thymen Arensman, Tobias Johannessen, Pello Bilbao

* Ben Tulett, Diego Ulissi, Quinten Hermans, Samuele Battistella