Tour of Poland race guide

Get the lowdown on this exciting seven-day WorldTour event with our bitesize race guide.

The Tour of Poland is back for 2016 and looks likely to produce yet more exciting racing in Eastern Europe, with a similarly varied parcours to 2015, finished off with a win or bust individual time trial.

With few races in July due to the Tour de France dominating the cycling calendar a strong selection of riders will do battle at the popular WorldTour race across seven tough stages.

Our lineup

Michal Kwiatkowski and Michal Golas will be keen to excel on home turf, with the former back to full fitness following a bout of laryngitis that ruled him out of the Tour de France. Benat Intxausti will continue his recovery from injury in Poland, and no doubt he would love to equal or better the third place finish he achieved in 2014, while Peter Kennaugh will be racing for the first time since he broke his collarbone at the Tour of California.

Elia Viviani is likely to come to the fore on the race's flatter days and the new Irish national road and time trial champion Nicolas Roche will be donning his fresh jerseys for the first time, as will new Czech Republic time trial champion Leopold Konig. Salvatore Puccio rounds out our strong eight-man team.

Velon will be broadcasting live rider data, alongside coverage of the race, here. 

Race overview

Several of our riders will have their eye on the final day 25-kilometre time trial, but before all of that there are plenty of tough stages in store. There are two opportunities for the sprinters in the opening two days, and if they can get over some late climbs, then they could contest stages three and four too. The race then hits the mountains on day five, before an intriguing looking queen stage on day six ahead of the final TT.

Key stages

It looks like the queen stage will be an exciting affair, with five laps of a brutal 40km circuit, finishing in Bukowina Tatrzańska. It's a relentless course, not dissimilar to an Ardennes Classic, and the GC is likely to hot up in a big way.

On the back of stage six the title is likely to still be up for grabs on the final day, when the field will take to a flat 25km time trial course. Both Nicolas Roche and Leopold Konig will wear their new national TT champs jerseys for the first time, and they will both be gunning for a top result on the final day in Poland.

Our history

Ben Swift won stages two and five in 2012, pipping future team-mate Elia Viviani to the line on both occasions, and Sergio Henao went on to finish third that year.

Three years later, in 2015, Henao won stage six in fine fashion to move into the race lead, but he lost the lead on the final day's individual time trial, eventually finishing sixth overall.

Team Sky has enjoyed time trial success in Poland though - Sir Bradley Wiggins dominated the 2013 TT, winning by almost a minute.

Riders to watch

2016 Giro d'Italia stage winners Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) will both have their eyes on stage victories, with Arndt sure to feature on the flatter days, while Ulissi could be in contention for the overall win.

British time trial champion Alex Dowsett (Movistar) will definitely be in the TT hunt on the final day, while team-mate Andrey Amador will lead the Spanish team. Etixx - Quick-Step are sending a powerful team, containing Giro d'Italia white jersey winner Bob Jungles and sprint sensation Fernando Gaviria.

Tour of Slovenia winner Rein Taaramae (Katusha), the experienced Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) will all be keen to leave their mark on the race too.

TV coverage

Every stage will be shown live on Eurosport Player and as mentioned above, Velon will be broadcasting live rider data, alongside coverage of the race, here.