Martin, Haussler, Nibali and Boonen head Tour of Poland start list
Weeklong stage race attracts quality field
The cycling season gets back up to speed following the Tour de France at the weekend, with the Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday and the start of the Tour of Poland on Sunday.
The Polish race organisers have revealed the big names headlining this year’s start list, as riders prepare for the Vuelta a España and kick off the second half of the season with a week of solid racing.
Irelands Dan Martin wears number one as the 2010 Tour of Poland winner and leads the Garmin-Cervélo team along with Heinrich Haussler and Christophe Le Mével.
Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is targeting a second victory at the Vuelta a España and will use the Tour of Poland as his final build-up stage race. He will be joined teammates Peter Sagan and Polish riders Maciej Bodnar and Maciej Paterski. Other Italians riding include Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Filippo Pozzato and Luca Paolini (Katusha), plus BMC duo Alessandro Ballan and Mauro Santambrogio.
HTC-Highroad has Kanstantsin Sivtsov and Slovakia’s Peter Velits in its line-up, while Fabian Wegmann and Thomas Rohregger lead the Leopard Trek team.
Tom Boonen will be back in action with Quick Step after he retired from the Tour de France following his high-speed crash during stage six. Boonen will be joined by Kevin Seeldraeyers who won the white jersey as best young rider at the Giro d’Italia.
The Tour of Poland begins on Sunday with a 101km road stage from Pruszkow to Warsaw, before heading south for the remaining six stages. The race ends in Krakow on Saturday August 6.
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The 22 teams for the Tour of Poland are:
AG2R-La Mondiale, BMC, Euskaltel-Euskadi ,Garmin-Cervelo, Katusha, Lampre-ISD, Leopard Trek, Liquigas-Cannondale, Movistar, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Astana, Quick Step, Rabobank, Team Sky, HTC-Highroad, RadioShack, Saxo Bank-SunGard, Vacansoleil-DCM.
Wild card invitations: CCC Polsat Polkowice, De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia, Polish national team, Skil-Shimano.