Giro di Polonia: The Tour de Pologne’s Italian Start

Now among the biggest one week races on the calendar, the Tour de Pologne has grown in significantly in stature over the last few years. Much of this growth has been through significant domestic support combined with the race’s increasing international profile, as it goes some way to filling the lull in the UCI calendar between the Tour and the Vuelta.

Perhaps it is this internationalisation of a race that was run as an amateur event from 1928 to 1993, especially the acquirement of Italian sponsors that is behind almost unprecedented decision to hold the first two days of the race in the mountains of Trentino in north east Italy before using a rest day to travel  to Krakow for the final five stages.

Of course, overseas starts to grand tours have been common for a long time, ever since the Tour de France started off with a stage form Amsterdam to Brasschaat in 1954. In general the Tour starts abroad every two to three year, and although the Giro and the Vuelta tend to be more inclined to begin at home, starting the major races overseas is definitely becoming more important as race organisers seek to expand the global brand of their races.

However, an overseas start to a one week race is virtually unprecedented, so it is certainly a very brave move by the race organisers to hold the first two stages of the national tour in a country with which Poland holds very few ties.
With the Trentino tourist board coming on board as one of the major sponsors of the race, this is could be seen as a decision that has been made on broadly commercial grounds. At a time when a lot of races are struggling for sponsorship, it would perhaps make sense to move the first two stages abroad in order to finance the race. However, Poland has been the only EU country to avoid recession, and with most of the main sponsors being Polish it would appear that the race should have had no problems in securing funding.

Trentino boy and 2012 winner Moreno Moser might not enjoy the Tour de Pologne’s mountainous visit to his home region

Perhaps the decision was made on sporting grounds. Certainly Italy has much more to offer in terms of spectacular geography able to provide exciting racing. The first two stages are both summit finishes, at Madonna di Campiglio tomorrow and then Passo Pordoi on Sunday. This has certainly attracted bigger names in comparison to previous years. Vincenzo Nibali will be the headline act, although he hasn’t raced since the Giro so probably won’t have the best legs. Perhaps the main challenge in Trentino will come from new Polish star Rafal Majka, while Mathias Frank looked good at the Tour de Suisse, and Sergio Henao will be looking to build form ahead of leading Team Sky at the Vuelta.

Certainly we will see action over the first two stages, but with the two toughest stages contested in the first two days, the organisers risk the result being decided before the race even sets foot in Poland. One of the joys of the Tour de Pologne in recent years has been the close gaps at the top of the overall classification, ensuring for attacking racing. This was helped by a parcours that was testing without being overly demanding, allowing different types of riders to challenge for GC. For example in 2011 Peter Sagan took the overall title by five seconds over Dan Martin. This year we risk a rider like Nibali taking a two minute lead in the first two days and never being seen again.

Even if the Italian start does yield good racing and benefit to the spectacle of the race, the fact that this racing will not take place on Polish soil raises perhaps the most important issue with the decision to start the event abroad.

A regular haunt of the Giro d’ Italia, Madonna di Campiglio is perhaps best known as the site of Marco Pantani’s positive test in 1999

While the grand tours are undeniably international events, therefore justifying excursions abroad, I tend to view one week races as inherently national, or even regional, events, even if much of the television audience will come from overseas. Races such as the Tour of Denmark, the Tour of Britain, and the Tour of the Basque Country are fundamentally designed for domestic audiences. They move around the country so the race can be seen by as many people as possible and the whole of the country can be put on show to the international television audience.

In contrast the racing for the Tour de Pologne has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the south of the country, along the hilly border with Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This has meant the race has been largely confined to 10% of the country’s area, making the title moniker of a national tour laughable.

The three days spent racing in and travelling from Italy will probably add sporting and commercial benefits to the race, but in my opinion this is time that could be spent taking in the north of the country which, apart from Warsaw, hasn’t even seen a hint of the race since 2009. The racing and the scenery may not be as spectacular, but surely such a route would make the national tour much more Polish, instead of selling some of the race’s soul for a few days in the Italian Alps.