Tour de Pologne gives Vuelta a España contenders first major tryout - Preview

The dust from the Tour de France has barely settled before the build-up to the Vuelta a España has begun. And this year’s Tour de Pologne will, as ever, give some of the top contenders for Spain a chance to run through their stage racing scales prior to heading to Barcelona on August 26th, as well as being a coveted prize to win itself.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) were second and third overall, respectively, in the Giro d’Italia this May. They are set to be back on the Grand Tour start grid in Spain in a month’s time and are arguably the two most-established names seeking to test their form in the week-long race. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Pologne is also well-known as a testing ground for up-and-coming stars, with last year’s winner Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), 24, and runner-up Thymen Arensman, 23, both cases in point. Now racing alongside Hayter in Ineos Grenadiers, Arensman will be back in Pologne this year, and after winning last year’s hilly time trial, this year’s flatter test against the clock on stage 6 in Katowice will likely be another target for the Dutch star.

For home fans, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), both former outright winners of their home race, will be the main local attractions. A climber like Majka may arguably find next Thursday’s time trial too difficult a challenge for an overall bid, but Kwiatkowski, assuming he has recovered well from the Tour de France, could be in the mix for a second GC victory.

Interest will be high too in how Giro d’Italia stage winner and talented US all-rounder Brandon McNulty fares on Poland’s captivating mixture of steep uphill finishes, flat bunch sprint stages and rolling hill country. That very variable terrain could also well suit versatile racers like recent Tour de France stage winner Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), German all-rounder Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), former Pologne stage winner and leader Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) and another former Pologne winner, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates), finally back in race action after a long spell battling injury.

The sprinters’ field, too in this year’s Tour de Pologne, is a typically deep one. Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), already a winner this July in central Europe in the Sibiu Tour, will be looking to make his mark here, while Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious), who triumphed early on in the Giro d’Italia this May, is another possible challenger. 

Former Belgian National Champion Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) had a phenomenally successful first half to the season and will be keen to get his second part of the year off to a bang here. Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) are no strangers to success on Polish roads  and German speedster Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) has often found Pologne to be favourable terrain, too. Another top name to watch is young Dutch gun Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma), who having taken his first WorldTour win here in 2022, would have no objection to claiming another this August. 

Having missed out on July’s main event, Belgium’s breakaway star Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Dstny) is partly using Pologne as another step towards his first Grand Tour of 2023 in Spain, while a hefty proportion of the Soudal-QuickStep lineup which raced the Giro and who could perhaps be supporting Remco Evenepoel in Spain in less than a month’s time will be present in Poland too.

Fast, furious GC battle

The scarcity of high mountain ranges in much of  Poland means the GC battle in Pologne will  be fought out on its usual mix of ultra-flat terrain and a selection of hilly stages, as well as a short time trial. Bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds at finishes, and 3, 2 and 1 seconds for intermediate sprints, add spice to what is already a very tight battle.

Stage 1’s flat course in the historic city of Poznan, deep in western Poland, looks more than set for the sprinters, but stage 2’s summit finish on the Orlinek climb in  Karpacz should see a first clear GC contender emerge. Visited each year from 1999 to 2007 by Pologne, and graphically nicknamed ‘the Wailing Wall’ by local riders because of its difficulty, the Orlinek may not decide who wins Pologne, but it certainly will weed out those who are not in contention.

Stage 3’s much shorter, punchy uphill finish in Duszniki-Zdroj could be another flashpoint for the GC, and the well-known, demanding final circuit at Bielsko-Biala on stage 5, while ending in a reduced group sprint, can produce some interesting surprises. A few years back, a victory for Richard Carapaz ahead of riders usually with a faster turn of speed in grinding uphill finishes than the Ecuadorian was one such case in point. 

However, the real showdown will likely come on stage 6’s gently rolling 16 kilometre TT in the industrial city of Katowice, prior to the usual bunch sprint finale on stage 7 in Poland’s former capital city, Krakow.

With many riders back in Pologne after a long summer break, it remains to be seen who could have their eye on targeting the TT, and within that, the overall. World Time Trial Champion Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) is an obvious candidate, but riders like Almeida, Thomas but Arensman, Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) and  Matteo Sobrero (Jayco-AIUIa) may well count. 

Pologne’s GC is the obvious immediate prize, but after a certain Dane’s TT crunch performance in the Tour de France and a big TT in the Vuelta a España in Valladolid, the chance for Spain-bound GC candidates to test their form against the clock in Pologne is too good to lose as well. And if it puts them in pole position to win central Europe’s biggest WorldTour event, then so much the better.