THIBAUT PINOT AND DAVIDE FORMOLO WILL ALSO BE AT THE TOUR DE POLOGNE

The list of top riders for the start of the 2018 Polish stage race is getting longer.

Several important names continue to enrich the start list for the 75° Tour de Pologne, which is being held from August 4 – 10, 2018.
Now, even Thibaut Pinot (Groupama – FDJ) will be at the start of this edition marking 90 years of this Polish stage race, which this year will also feature celebrations for the Centennial of National Independence.

The French rider had a great spring, winning the Tour of the Alps. After that he showed up to the start of the Giro d’Italia with the ambition and determination to vie for the maglia rosa or at least the final podium. He had a fantastic Giro all the way to the last mountain stage with arrival in Cervinia, on the second-to-last day of the race.
But it was the very last mountains that cost Pinot dearly, forcing him to give up his dream of the pink podium after a terrible day. Even though he hung in there, managing to cross the finish line in Cervinia escorted by his team mates, all the extreme effort and fatigue had caught up with the rider after three gruelling weeks of racing, obliging him to withdraw from the race and miss making it to the final stage in Rome.

“We are very happy to welcome this rider to the roads of Poland. The Giro was very hard and Pinot didn’t ever hold back, showing off excellent moves in all the mountain stages. As an ex-rider I can assure you that if this guy pulled out on the eve of the last stage of a major tour, he must have really been shattered, otherwise you don’t just throw away three weeks of so much sacrifice and hard work. His results show that he is definitely a great rider who can compete for victory in the major tours; his achievements include third place in the final classification in the 2014 Tour de France, where he has also managed to win two stages in his career. What’s important is that Pinot has recovered well from the problems that afflicted him in the Giro, and I hope that in Poland he can find stimulus, motivation and new objectives to aim for. The route for the Tour de Pologne, especially on the last two days, features several stages suited to his skills,” explains General Director for the Tour de Pologne, Czeslaw Lang.

Another important rider who we’ll see in action at the Tour de Pologne is Davide Formolo. The Italian rider from team Bora – Hansgrohe also had a great Giro d’Italia, ending up in tenth place in the general classification. In his previous participation in Poland, in 2016, Formolo left his mark, coming in second in the challenging stage with arrival in Zakopane, which was made even harder that year by bad weather. He eventually closed out the final classification, which was won by Belgian Tim Wellens, in fourth place.

These names have joined the list of top riders already announced previously, which includes: winner of the 2017 TDP Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Fabio Aru (UAE – Team Emirates), the pair from team Mitchelton-Scott, Simon Yates and Matteo Trentin and winner of the 2012 TDP Moreno Moser (Astana Pro Team).