It’s Time Trial day!
The penultimate stage of the 2023 Tour de Pologne UCI WorldTour is an ITT in Katowice over a distance of 16.6km. The Katowice route traditionally runs through the streets of the city centre, showing the transformation of the Silesian capital, including the Market Square with its characteristic palm trees or the Cultural Zone, where the Katowice Mine used to operate years ago. The finish line will be at the Katowice Spodek.
The stage is set to heat up as the top contenders battle to win.
“The time trial looks a bit like the one in 2021 when I was second behind Cavagna. It’s going to be a technical one in the city. It’s a short ITT, so it’s important to get into the rhythm from the first kilometres and have good legs. I’m hoping for a good result.” explains Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), one of the absolute favourites.
It will also be the last test before the world time trial championships in Glasgow on 9th August for a number of riders including Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) Lennard Kämna (BORA – hansgrohe), Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick – Step), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) and reigning world champion Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma).
“Today’s time trial features a nice course and is the ideal way for me to check my condition before the world championships,” said reigning world champion Tobias Foss. “The parkour is short but intense. It will be about 20 minutes at full pace compared to the 1 hour we expect in Glasgow. Today is no different, but the process of getting into the zone for a time trial is very similar. I had a good week at the Tour de Pologne. It’s a tough and beautiful race. It’s perfect for me to fine-tune my condition and support my team in the race.”
The Tour de Pologne is no stranger to individual time trials. From 2005 until last year, the race featured 7 individual time trials, which were always decisive for the general classification.
In 2005, from Jelenia Gora to Karpacz (19km), Thomas Dekker won the stage and finished third overall, 11 seconds behind winner Bobby Julich.
In 2013, from Wieliczka to Krakow (37 km), Bradley Wiggins won and Pieter Weening won the GC with a great performance that took him from 5th to 1st place in the GC.
In 2014 the course was in Krakow (25km). Kristof Vandewalle won and Rafal Majka kept the yellow jersey and won the race.
In 2014 the course was in Krakow (25km). Kristof Vandewalle won and Rafal Majka kept the yellow jersey and won the race.
Same story in 2015 Krakow – Krakow (25km). Marcin Bialoblocki, riding for the Polish national team, won the stage. Ion Izagirre, sixth overall going into the stage, took the yellow jersey.
The beautiful city of Krakow hosted the 2016 TT (25km). Alex Dowsett won the ITT while Tim Wellens, already in yellow, won the overall.
In 2021, the TT was held in Katowice (16.9km), stage 6: Rémi Cavagna won, with João Almeida finishing second and retaining yellow going into the final stage.
In 2022 it was a mountain ITT from Nowy Targ to Bukovina Resort (11.8km), Dutchman Thymen Arensman won the stage, with Ethan Hayter taking yellow and holding on to his lead in the grand finale the following day.