The Tour de Pologne opened with teams presentation and a press conference

Everything is ready for the Grand Depart of the Tour de Pologne UCI World Tour, which kicks off tomorrow with the first, 132 km, Krakow-Krakow stage. From August 3 to 9, there will be seven stages from Krakow to Bukowina Tatrzanska.

The Tour de Pologne event got started with the opening ceremony, featuring the presentation of the teams, in the famous market place of “Rynek Glowny”, which is also Krakow city’s main square. There are 22 teams at the start for a total of 154 riders.

Today at Novotel Krakow City West there was a press conference featuring the General Director of the Tour de Pologne Czeslaw Lang and some of the Top Riders who are starting in this edition. The conference was attended by: Colombian Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), winner of two stages in the 2016 Tour de Pologne, on the finish lines in Katowice and Rzeszow. Spain’s Ion Izagirre (Astana Pro Team), winner of the Tour de Pologne in 2015 and the second placed rider for two years in a row, in 2014 and 2013. The other Colombian, Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team), is participating in the Tour de Pologne for the first time this year. He scored the white jersey as the best young rider in this year’s Giro d’Italia and in 2018 he came in third in both the Giro and the Vuelta. Germany’s John Degenkolb (Trek – Segafredo) winner of one stage in the 2012 Tour de Pologne. And then there are Poland’s own Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal) and Michal Golas (Team Ineos), the Italian sprinter with Polish roots, Jakub Mareczko (CCC Team) and finally Marek Rutkiewicz (Polish National Team), Captain of the Polish National team, who is participating in the Tour de Pologne for the 15th time.

Furthermore, at the end of the press conference big news was announced of the creation of the first Association of Professional Polish Cycling Riders.

Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).“I remember that three years ago I’ve won two stages but now three years later I’m coming back. It’s a really nice race, and we’ll see what happens. The start will be a little easier, because of course it’s the flat stages, and we need to try and take one victory or try to do really well and later we’ll need to hang on for the climbs in the mountain stages.”

Ion Izagirre (Astana Pro Team).“I really like, I love this race. It’s a good race for me, I think and we will see what we can do here. I’m in good shape, but we need to see also that I didn’t race since the Giro d’Italia, so two months, so we are going to see day by day, what we can do. Lopez is also here to do well in the GC, but I think that we have good team mates and it’s a good preparation also for the Vuelta Espana. Yes, we need to see what we can do.”

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team).“Well, this is my first time in Poland, I am preparing for a good race, and we’re going to see day by day. After the Giro I haven’t been in any other race. In any case, I think this is a good race for Ion, so he’s going to be the central rider and I’m going to be there to help him. Here we have a fantastic team, and I think it’s important to take it day by day and hope to cover every terrain, to make it to the mountain stages to able to score a stage victory there.”

John Degenkolb (Trek – Segafredo). “In 2012 I won what was the seventh and last stage of the Tour de Pologne, right here in Krakow, where we will be setting off from tomorrow. It was a crazy final sprint; I remember that in the last kilometre a terrible storm rolled in, but anyway I managed to give a fantastic sprint and win the stage. I’m very happy to be returning to Poland, I have a really great memory of this race and that victory. I think that especially in the first two stages there will be the perfect terrain for us sprinters.”

Marek Rutkiewicz (Polish National Team).“We want to give a good fight in each stage, maybe win a stage, maybe score the classification for the best climber, maybe the classification for the most active rider. We know the general classification is a very high position, so for us it’s maybe too hard to take a good place but we think that it is possible to win a stage. It’s an amazing race. It’s my fifteenth start in this race. Every year sees a lot of people, a lot of media, a lot of fans so it’s a very, very, exceptional race.”

Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal). “I am glad to be back at TdP. We have a strong team, I think Bjorg Lambrecht can try to fight for the GC. All the team is trained hard and I think that most of us are in a good shape. For sure we will fight.”

Michal Golas (Team Ineos). “In every race we take part, we focus on the GC. We have a strong team with Pavel Sivakov, who was in the top 10 at the Giro, we have Ben Swift, British champion and a lot of very ambitious guys. We would like to show our best side, the plan is the same as the year before.”

Jakub Mareczko (CCC Team). “For me it is my first time at theTour de Pologne. We have a strong team which will fight in every stage and try to do our best.”

Rafal Majka (Bora – hansgrohe) will be at the start of the race too. Majka carried Poland back to the top step of the Tour de Pologne podium in 2014, and then he placed second in 2017. In the team lineup for Bora – hansgrohe there is also the strong German sprinter Pascal Ackermann that last year at Tour de Pologne won two stages, in Krakow and Katowice.