Tour de Pologne
 |
|
| Date | August |
|---|---|
| Region | Poland |
| English name | Tour of Poland |
| Local name(s) | Wyścig Dookoła Polski (Polish) |
| Discipline | Road race |
| Competition | UCI World Tour |
| Type | Stage-race |
| Race director | Czesław Lang |
| First edition | 1928 |
| Editions | 73 (as of 2016) |
| First winner |
 Feliks Więcek (POL)
|
| Most wins |
Dariusz Baranowski (POL) Marian Więckowski (POL) (3 wins) |
| Most recent |
 Tim Wellens (BEL)
|
The Tour de Pologne (French for "Tour of Poland"), official abbreviation TdP, is a road bicycle racing stage race. It consists of seven or eight stages and is usually around 1,200 km in length. The race was first held in 1928. Until 1952 the race was held sporadically, but since then it has been an annual race. Until early 1993 the race was open to amateur cyclists only and most of its winners came from Poland.
The international cycling association, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), made TdP part of the UCI ProTour in 2005, and part of the UCI World Ranking calendar in 2009.
The initial concept of the TdP's multi-stage format was modeled after the popular Tour de France. The proposal for organizing the event was submitted jointly by the Warsaw Cycling Society and the Przegląd Sportowy sports newspaper published in Kraków. Thanks to their initiative, a Wyścig Dookoła Polski (Race Around Poland, the original name of the TdP) was held in the summer of 1928 . The historic first edition of the race took place on 7–11 September 1928. 71 cyclists rode almost 1,500 km — the winner was Felix Więcek from the Bydgoszcz Cycling Club.
Until the outbreak of World War II, the TdP took place four times, two of which — in the years 1937 and 1939 - were won by the "Tiger of the Roads" - Bolesław Napierała.
The early races differed significantly from today's. The stages were much longer (often a distance of 300 km), and riders repeatedly caught flat tires on stone-chipped roads, and made stops at local restaurants.
After the war, the idea of a cycling competition around Poland was reborn. In 1947, thanks to the cooperation of the Polish Cycling Association, the publishing house "Czytelnik" and a group of journalists, the race was reactivated after an 8-year break. The winner after just four stages and only 606 km (the shortest route in the history of the TdP) was Stanislaw Grzelak (Tramwajarz Lodz). Until 1993 it was not possible for the organizers of TdP to achieve an adequate rank for their event. This was due to the official stance of the authorities and the favoring of a different cycling event — the Peace Race. Noteworthy moments from that time period: triumphs of foreign cyclists — Francesco Locatelli (1949), Roger Diercken (1960), José Viejo (1972) and André Delcroix (from 1974), the longest edition of the race - 2,311 km and 13 stages (in 1953) and the hat-trick of victories of Marian Wieckowski (1954–56), matched only by Dariusz Baranowski (1991–93).
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Wikipedia