On Monday, the Phonak team will begin competing in the Tour de Pologne, its last big tour. The seven-day race, which will cover a total of 1,221.5 km, will kick off in Pultusk near Warsaw. From there, the course will head in the direction of the Baltic sea, where the longest stage of the Tour will take place on the third day, starting in the port city of Gdansk.
Phonak is hoping for stage wins by Fabrizio Guidi, Robert Hunter or Gregory Rast, especially during the first four stages which will have mostly flat profiles. After that, the race will head into the high mountains, where Alexandre Moos' talents as a climber will be in demand. Phonak's list of starters will be rounded out by young riders Patrick McCarty, David Vitoria and Michael Schär. However, sports director Adriano Baffi will not be able to count on Martin Elmiger, who is suffering from a virus infection and therefore has not travelled to Poland, leaving the team with seven instead of eight riders.
