It is less than a week since the 2022 Tour de France ended but the Vuelta a España is already looming on the horizon for the likes of Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and so the Tour de Pologne, which starts this Saturday, represents the Ecuadorian’s first step to the final Grand Tour of 2022.
The Tour de Pologne offers riders like Carapaz, back in action for the first time since he took the runner’s up spot of Giro d’Italia last May, a week-long mixture of very hilly, but not excessively difficult stages, one potentially decisive uphill time trial and three flat stages.
In other words, this is an unpredictable nervous race where ambushes and sudden skirmishes can quickly morph into a full scale GC battle, exactly the kind of week-long event that Carapaz relishes as we saw with his devastating surprise attack in a seemingly uncomplicated stage in the Volta a Catalunya this spring.
On a personal front, Pologne 2022 also represents an opportunity for Carapaz to set the record straight after the South American took a spectacular stage win and the lead in the 2020 edition of the race, only to crash badly and abandon the race.
Carapaz is the stand-out GC contender at the Tour de Pologne but the 2022 race also features a star-studded lineup of sprinters.
Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) will be making his debut in his British national champion’s colours and Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious)) and top German fastman Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) will also be very much in the running for stage victories.
Every stage will also be a chance for teams to score UCI ranking points as the battle to avoid relegation from the WorldTour intensifies.
The route
The sprinters may have to wait until Sunday for their first chance, as the lengthy opening stage from the easterly town of…
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