Tour de Pologne 2024: Lots of hills & Vingegaard - this is the Tour of Poland
Thomas Huber
· 12.08.2024
The most important facts in brief
- Date: 12 to 18 August
- Distance: ~ 1030 kilometres
- Start: WroclawTarget: Krakow
- Profile: four hilly stages, two flat stages, one individual time trial
- UCI category: World Tour
- Premiere: 1928, 81st edition
The Tour of Poland, officially the Tour de Pologne, is held annually in July or August and, alongside the Clasica San Sebastian, is the first highlight after the Tour de France in the UCI World Tour calendar. The record winners of the Tour of Poland are the Poles Dariusz Baranowski, Andrzej Mierzejewski and Marian Wieckowski with three overall victories each. Two Germans have also won the Tour of Poland: Stefan Schumacher and Jens Voigt in 2006 and 2008.
Vingegaard leads the field of favourites
After his overall victory last year, Matej Mohoric will also be competing in the 2024 Tour of Poland. However, the top favourite is another rider: 2024 Tour de France runner-up Jonas Vingegaard has announced his participation in the Tour. For the Dane, it will be the first time he has taken part in the Tour de Pologne since 2020. Back then he finished the tour in eighth place overall, now he is going for the overall victory. In addition to Vingegaard and Mohoric, Tour de France stage winner Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Mohoric's team-mate Pello Bilbao and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) can also be counted on in the battle for overall victory. Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) are among those travelling for stage wins in bunch sprints. The two Germans Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) are also likely to have a say in the sprints.
Tour de Pologne 2024: The route with all stages and elevation profiles at a glance
The Tour of Poland 2024 leads over mostly hilly terrain, which is why not only cyclists but also classic specialists have a chance of winning the Tour of Poland. The Slovenian Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) is the reigning title holder. The classics specialist came out on top in 2023 ahead of Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emriates) and local hero Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers).
In 2024, the 6th stage could decide the classification. It will take the riders into the High Tatra Mountains, where they will have to tackle two 1st category climbs. A challenging mountain time trial also awaits the riders on stage 2. Fast-paced classification riders could therefore have the edge over the classics riders at this year's event.
Stage 1 | Monday, 12 August | Wroclaw - Karpacz | 156.1 kilometres - 1838 vertical metres
The classics riders are likely to play an important role at the start of the 2024 Tour of Poland in Wroclaw. Time and again, there will be tough climbs that will be difficult for the peloton to control. Either a breakaway group will make it through or there will already be small gaps in the classification.
Stage 2 | Tuesday, 13 August | Myslakowice - Karpacz | 15.4 kilometres - 461 vertical metres | Individual time trial
The individual time trial is on the agenda for stage 2 of the Tour de Pologne 2024. At just 15.4 kilometres, it is quite short, but the route is continuously uphill. The final section in particular is likely to be challenging. Not only time trial skills are required here, but also climbing skills.
Stage 3 | Wednesday, 14 August | Walbrzych - Duszniki-Zdroj | 156.5 kilometres - 3159 vertical metres
Stage 3 is the stage with the most metres in altitude. The peloton will face a total of five categorised climbs - all of them 2nd category climbs. The race will be extremely difficult to control and the favourites for the classification will probably be at the front.
Stage 4 | Thursday, 15 August | Kudowa-Zdroj - Prudnik | 195.3 kilometres - 1734 vertical metres
Stage 4 will probably be the hour of the sprinters for the first time. Although a leading group will break away on the hilly terrain in the first half of the race, they are likely to be caught by the peloton in the second part of the race. Although the finish in Prudnik is slightly uphill, the sprinters still have the best chance of winning the stage.
Stage 5 | Friday, 16 August | Katowice - Katowice | 187.6 kilometres - 1634 vertical metres
Stage 5 runs around Katowice. Even though there are a few hills, the sprinters are likely to strike again here.
Stage 6 | Saturday, 17 August | Wadowice - Bukowina Resort | 183.2 kilometres - 3134 vertical metres
Stage 6 is possibly the queen stage, in which the battle for overall victory will be decided. There are three 1st category climbs in the last 60 kilometres, and the finish is also on a climb. Whoever is able to break away on the poisonous climbs and open up a gap to the other classification riders could win the stage. This will require both climbing skills and explosiveness.
Stage 7 | Sunday, 18 August | Wieliczka - Krakow | 142.1 kilometres - 1527 vertical metres
A sprint is particularly likely at the finish of the tour in Krakow. Although the breakaway riders can also expect to win the final stage, the flat second half of the race clearly favours the sprint specialists. In contrast, little is likely to change in the overall classification.
Tour de Pologne 2024: TV broadcast & live stream of the Tour of Poland
In Germany, the Tour of Poland 2024 will not be available on television or via a live stream. If you are in Poland, you can follow the tour on TVP Sport or TVP 1.
Participating teams
Movistar, Cofidis, Intermarche-Wanty, EF Education EasyPost, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Bahrain-Victorious, Lidl-Trek, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, UAE Team Emirates, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Arkea-B&B Hotels, Soudal - Quick Step, Ineos Grenadiers, Groupama-FDJ, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, Team Jayco-AlUla, Visma | Lease a Bike, Astana Qazaqstan Team, Israel-Premier Tech, Tudor Pro Cycling Team, Lubelskie Perla Polski, Mazowsze Serce Polski, Team Poland
The previous winners of the Tour de Pologne
- 1928 Feliks Wiecek (Poland)
- 1929 Jozef Stefanski (Poland)
- 1933 Jerzy Lipinski (Poland)
- 1937 Boleslaw Napierala (Poland)
- 1939 Boleslaw Napierala (Poland)
- 1947 Stanislaw Grzelak (Poland)
- 1948 Waclaw Wojcik (Poland)
- 1949 Francesco Locatelli (Italy)
- 1952 Waclaw Wojcik (Poland)
- 1953 Mieczyslaw Wilczewski (Poland)
- 1954 Marian Wieckowski (Poland)
- 1955 Marian Wieckowski (Poland)
- 1956 Marian Wieckowski (Poland)
- 1957 Henryk Kowalski (Poland)
- 1958 Boguslaw Fornalczyk (Poland)
- 1959 Wiesław Podobas (Poland)
- 1960 Roger Diercken (Belgium)
- 1961 Henryk Kowalski (Poland)
- 1962 Jan Kudra (Poland)
- 1963 Stanislaw Gazda (Poland)
- 1964 Rajmund Zielinski (Poland)
- 1965 Jozef Beker (Poland)
- 1966 Jozef Gawliczek (Poland)
- 1967 Andrzej Blawdzin (Poland)
- 1968 Jan Kudra (Poland)
- 1969 Wojciech Matusiak (Poland)
- 1970 Jan Stachura (Poland)
- 1971 Stanislaw Szozda (Poland)
- 1972 Jose Luis Viejo (Spain)
- 1973 Lucjan Lis (Poland)
- 1974 Andre Delcroix (Belgium)
- 1975 Tadeusz Mytnik (Poland)
- 1976 Janusz Kowalski (Poland)
- 1977 Lechoslaw Michalak (Poland)
- 1978 Jan Brzezny (Poland)
- 1979 Henryk Charucki (Poland)
- 1980 Czeslaw Lang (Poland)
- 1981 Jan Brzezny (Poland)
- 1982 Andrzej Mierzejewski (Poland)
- 1983 Tadeusz Krawczyk (Poland)
- 1984 Andrzej Mierzejewski (Poland)
- 1985 Marek Lesniewski (Poland)
- 1986 Marek Kulas (Poland)
- 1987 Zbigniew Piatek (Poland)
- 1988 Andrzej Mierzejewski (Poland)
- 1989 Marek Wrona (Poland)
- 1990 Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (Poland)
- 1991 Dariusz Baranowski (Poland)
- 1992 Dariusz Baranowski (Poland)
- 1993 Dariusz Baranowski (Poland)
- 1994 Maurizio Fondriest (Italy)
- 1995 Zbigniew Spruch (Poland)
- 1996 Viatcheslav Djavanian (Russia)
- 1997 Rolf Järmann (Switzerland)
- 1998 Serguei Ivanov (Russia)
- 1999 Tomasz Brozyna (Poland)
- 2000 Piotr Przydzial (Poland)
- 2001 Ondrej Sosenka (Czech Republic)
- 2002 Laurent Brochard (France)
- 2003 Cezary Zamana (Poland)
- 2004 Ondrej Sosenka (Czech Republic)
- 2005 Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg)
- 2006 Stefan Schumacher (Germany)
- 2007 Johan Vansummeren (Belgium)
- 2008 Jens Voigt (Germany)
- 2009 Alessandro Ballan (Italy)
- 2010 Daniel Martin (Ireland)
- 2011 Peter Sagan (Slovakia)
- 2012 Moreno Moser (Italy)
- 2013 Pieter Weening (Netherlands)
- 2014 Rafał Majka (Poland)
- 2015 Ion Izagirre (Spain)
- 2016 Tim Wellens (Belgium)
- 2017 Dylan Teuns (Belgium)
- 2018 Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland)
- 2019 Pavel Sivakov (France)
- 2020 Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)
- 2021 Joao Almeida (Portugal)
- 2022 Ethan Hayter (Great Britain)
- 2023 Matej Mohoric (Slovenia)
