Gallery: Cancellara, Hushovd and Phinney star at the Tour of Poland
Riders gather for the team presentation in Italy
The 23 teams that will compete in the 70th edition of the Tour de Pologne attended the official presentation on Friday evening, as Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Leopard) all began the second half of their season with the weeklong WorldTour race.
This year's Tour of Poland begins in Italy, with two mountain stages in the Dolomites before transferring north to Poland on Monday for the final five stages. The race ends on August 3 with a 37km time trial to Krakow.
Nibali and Wiggins face each other for the first time since the Giro d'Italia but the Tour of Poland is the first race for both riders and their form remains a mystery. Both were also absent from the team presentation due to arriving late in Rovereto. However Team Sky can also count on Rigoberto Uran and has Ben Swift for the two expected sprint stages.
Other big names in action at the Tour of Poland include Ivan Basso (Cannondale), Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida), Giovanni Visconti, Sylvester Szmyd (Movistar), Thor Hushovd, Taylor Phinney, Marco Pinotti and new Italian national champion Ivan Santaromita (BMC). Thomas Dekker and Johan Vansummeren stand out in the Garmin-Sharp line-up.
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.