Cycling: Countdown to 76th Tour de Pologne

More than 150 riders from various countries are gearing up to take part in Poland’s largest cycling race, the Tour de Pologne, which takes off later this week.

Image:

tourdepologne.pl

The seven-stage 1,075.5-kilometre long race will start in the historic city of Kraków on Saturday. It will end in Bukowina Tatrzańska in the south of the country on August 9.

The first leg of the annual race will see cyclists, among them 15 Poles, cover a 132 km route starting and ending in Kraków.

The remaining stages of the 76th Tour de Pologne will end in Katowice, Zabrze, at Mount Kocierz, and in Bielsko-Biała and Zakopane.

Polish rider Michał Kwiatkowski, who won last year's Tour de Pologne, has said he is skipping this year’s edition of the race because he needs more time to recover after an exhausting Tour de France.

“As much as I love the Tour of Poland and cherish from last year, I will not participate in this year’s edition,” Kwiatkowski said in a social media post this week.

He added: “Straight after finishing the Tour de France I know now that my body has needed to recover for a long time.”

View this post on Instagram

I'm not a guy who likes to change his plans but unfortunately this is one of those moments. As much as I love Tour de Pologne and cherish memories from last year, I will not participate in this year's edition. I know now, straight after finishing Tour de France, that recovery, is what my body was suggesting me probably since very long time. So far it wasn't the season I was dreaming of and this is a good time for reflection and thinking about my preparation, combining heavy racing in 2018 and trying to step up from that in particular. Hopefully soon I will be able to find a joy from riding my bike and I'm sure that from there on I will win again some big races. Have a great Tour de Pologne everyone! It’s a very difficult decision to miss that amazing feeling of racing in front of Polish fans. I will be watching and hoping my teammates put on a great show. @tourdepologne @teamineos 📷 PAP/EPA

A post shared by Michał Kwiatkowski (@kwiato) on Jul 30, 2019 at 3:00am PDT

(gs)

Source: tourdepologne.pl, TVP Sport, PAP