Post by gigi on Sept 18, 2008 15:58:58 GMT 1
The Tour de Pologne (Tour of Poland) runs from September 14-20, 2008
Tour de Pologne – road cycling stage race is the most prestigious annual sporting event in Poland with long 80-years old tradition. First edition of the race was held in September 1928 under the name of Bieg Dookola Polski with the field of 71 riders taking part in the competition on 1491 kms long route. First organizers of the race were Warsaw’s Society of Cyclists called Warszawskie Towarzystwo Cyklistow and sporting daily newspaper "Przegląd Sportowy". Before the outbreak of Second World War race was held five times – apart from 1928 also in 1929, 1933, 1927 & 1939. Event was brought back to life in 1947 and since then until 1992 was held as stage race for amateur riders.
New era for the race came in 1993 season when former Olympic silver medalist from Moscow Road Race – Czeslaw Lang took the charge in organizing the event. At the start he invested his own money – hard earned during professional career in Italian teams between 1982 to 1989 season – to save the race that was close to collapse in new economical realities. Soon after race gained new dimension and international recognition. In years that followed not only best Polish riders but also many stars from abroad took part in the race just to name likes of: Maurizio Fondriest (winner in 1994), Pavel Tonkov, Peter Lutenberger, Adriano Baffi, Andy Hampsten, Marco Pantani, Evgeni Berzin, Dmitri Konychev, Markus Zberg, Jens Voigt, Erik Zabel, Peter Van Petegem, Tom Steels, Jaan Kirsipuu, Vjatcheslav Ekimov, Alexandre Vinokourov, Chris Boardman, Stuart O'Grady or Danilo Di Luca.
The race was making steady progress in UCI calendar hierarchy starting from as open event, then advancing from 2.5 category to 2.2 level in just 6 years - till 2002 season. But that was not the final word from the TdP organizers. With the start of the new Pro Tour series Tour de Pologne became one of the leading stage races among events of week long format – today it’s the only race from Central-East Europe that’s part of this exclusive series. Last three edition of the race were therefore big event both on organizational and media level. Millions of viewers watched live coverage of the race in Polish State Television (TVP) and since 2006 race is also present in Eurosport 2 schedule – TV program run in 9-language versions and seen in 40 countries. TdP is also popular among roadside sporting fans – race en route was watched by 2 millions people. There were also 6.000 press articles about the race plus 80.000 internet readers followed the race through interactive TV called iTVP.
Honorary patron of the race is President of Rzeczpospolita Polska – Lech Kaczynski. TdP it’s also the biggest logistical event in Polish sport. Under the wings of the main event also many other additional events are held, such as Mini Tour de Pologne – in which no less than 10.000 new recruits of cycling took part. During the race in TdP stage towns also other sporting and cultural events are organized.
www.tourdepologne.pl/en/news.asp?id=155&los=0,8692611
As a side note, I wonder if there will be any other...um...extremely enthusiastic fans such as this one who showed up at the Tour of Spain "La Vuelta" race? ;D ;D ;D
Tour de Pologne – road cycling stage race is the most prestigious annual sporting event in Poland with long 80-years old tradition. First edition of the race was held in September 1928 under the name of Bieg Dookola Polski with the field of 71 riders taking part in the competition on 1491 kms long route. First organizers of the race were Warsaw’s Society of Cyclists called Warszawskie Towarzystwo Cyklistow and sporting daily newspaper "Przegląd Sportowy". Before the outbreak of Second World War race was held five times – apart from 1928 also in 1929, 1933, 1927 & 1939. Event was brought back to life in 1947 and since then until 1992 was held as stage race for amateur riders.
New era for the race came in 1993 season when former Olympic silver medalist from Moscow Road Race – Czeslaw Lang took the charge in organizing the event. At the start he invested his own money – hard earned during professional career in Italian teams between 1982 to 1989 season – to save the race that was close to collapse in new economical realities. Soon after race gained new dimension and international recognition. In years that followed not only best Polish riders but also many stars from abroad took part in the race just to name likes of: Maurizio Fondriest (winner in 1994), Pavel Tonkov, Peter Lutenberger, Adriano Baffi, Andy Hampsten, Marco Pantani, Evgeni Berzin, Dmitri Konychev, Markus Zberg, Jens Voigt, Erik Zabel, Peter Van Petegem, Tom Steels, Jaan Kirsipuu, Vjatcheslav Ekimov, Alexandre Vinokourov, Chris Boardman, Stuart O'Grady or Danilo Di Luca.
The race was making steady progress in UCI calendar hierarchy starting from as open event, then advancing from 2.5 category to 2.2 level in just 6 years - till 2002 season. But that was not the final word from the TdP organizers. With the start of the new Pro Tour series Tour de Pologne became one of the leading stage races among events of week long format – today it’s the only race from Central-East Europe that’s part of this exclusive series. Last three edition of the race were therefore big event both on organizational and media level. Millions of viewers watched live coverage of the race in Polish State Television (TVP) and since 2006 race is also present in Eurosport 2 schedule – TV program run in 9-language versions and seen in 40 countries. TdP is also popular among roadside sporting fans – race en route was watched by 2 millions people. There were also 6.000 press articles about the race plus 80.000 internet readers followed the race through interactive TV called iTVP.
Honorary patron of the race is President of Rzeczpospolita Polska – Lech Kaczynski. TdP it’s also the biggest logistical event in Polish sport. Under the wings of the main event also many other additional events are held, such as Mini Tour de Pologne – in which no less than 10.000 new recruits of cycling took part. During the race in TdP stage towns also other sporting and cultural events are organized.
www.tourdepologne.pl/en/news.asp?id=155&los=0,8692611
As a side note, I wonder if there will be any other...um...extremely enthusiastic fans such as this one who showed up at the Tour of Spain "La Vuelta" race? ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D