TdP 2013: Franczak fought WT riders despite early crash and swollen hands

BMC's Thor Hushovd won stage 3 of 70th Tour de Pologne, claiming his 4th victory of this season. Norwegian champion did a brilliant job, using his longtime experience and outsprinting Mark Renshaw and Steele von Hoff on the roads of Rzeszów.

It was good to see Michał Gołaś finishing 7th but when I saw the bunch taking the final corner, I already knew the rider I'll be talking to. Polish National Team is participating in the race and they have only one man who is capable of fighting in the sprint.

21-year-old Paweł Franczak finished 16th in a bunch sprint. Many people will say: "Oh, 16th, really? Nothing to talk about. "Mostly true - the place is not impresive, there aren't many top sprinters here butI think he deserves to be mentioned.

Franczak has never competed in such a race. He is currently racing for Polish Continental team Wibatech Brzeg, taking part in races on Polish roads. This year he won the last stage of Carpathian Couriers Race, finishing this international U-23 event with powerful sprint and beautiful victory in Tarnów. In June he took 4th in Polish Nationals in U-23 road race, participating in the action of the race along with Łukasz Wiśniowski.

Considering his lack of experience and  to such races, he did pretty well. His first reaction: The weather has really put us through the wringer. I was feeling good, I even managed to get involved in one of the early breakaways - together with Łukasz Bodnar we bridged to attacking riders but the peleton didn't want to let us go.

Franczak, who has never participated in such a race, at such a high level, tried to save a much energy as possible during first two stages. Mountain roads of Dolomites are not the terrain for him, as he prefers to focus on classics or hilly stages. 21-year-old spent some time in grupetto and finished the first part of the race unscratched. Polish roads and two flat stage seemed to be much more suitable for him. Unfortunately, the crash ended his plans of a good position in the final sprint. When I called him after the  stage, he was waiting for the tests results in the hospital.

I wasn't lucky - slippery roads and nervous moves in the peleton caused a crash. I went down, got a lot of bruises. My hands were in terrible condition, really. I was even thinking of abandoning the stage - it looked awful and hurt so much that I thought several fingers are broken - Franczak told me.

I really wanted to get to the finish - participating in this race is a  dream come true for many Polish riders. I managed to get to Rzeszów. The pace was very high, the rounds technical and dangerous. I tried to stay at the front and despite pain take part in the sprint.  I finished 16th. Well, truth to tell, I'm disappointed. I know I had the legs to be in top10 but after the crash I was felling really bad, as I had problems with handling my bike. 

Franczak recovered well and even took part in a breakaway on the next stage. When we talked in Nowy Targ yesterday, he seemed much more optimistic and the hand injuries turned out not to be that serious.

Tour de Pologne 2013: new classification and its impact on GC explained

70th edition of Tour de Pologne starts this week, so it's time to look at the changes the UCI and organizers made. When the changes were announced, I wrote a small piece about them (you can find it here) but today we know all the details and, suprisingly, there is a road book in English available.

I honestly thought I'll have to put it all together by myself and that it's going to take ages but since we got the rules in English, there's no need to do that. Here we go:

Time bonuses at the finish line:

1st place - 10 sec
2nd place - 6 sec
3rd place - 4 sec

Intermediate sprint: 3-2-1

There are three intermediate sprints on stages 1, 2 and 4; two on stage 3 and one intermediate sprint on stages 5 and 6. Stage 7 is a time trial so obviously no intermediate sprints.

There is one additional classification that has something to do with intermediate sprints and categorized mountain passes. It's called "attractivity contest classification". No idea where the name comes from but anyway, this can change the way the race plays out and may suprise some of the fans.

So, it's time to quote. The rules state:

At each stage to the first three riders of “attractivity contest classification” will be awarded time bonuses: 30 sec., 20 sec. and 10 sec. respectively (point 11.1.5).

11.1.5. “ATTRACTIVITY CONTEST CLASSIFICATION”

11.1.5.1. Riders gain points to daily “Attractivity Contest Classification” ranking on each of the primes during the stage (intermediate sprints, mountain passes, hill contests)

11.1.5.2 Agreement to restrict time bonuses to top 3 in daily “Attractivity Contest Classification” ranking:

• 1st in daily Race Appeal ranking: 30 seconds time bonus on individual general classification 
• 2nd in daily “Attractivity Contest Classification” ranking: 20 seconds time bonus on individual general classification 
• 3rd in daily “Attractivity Contest Classification” ranking: 10 seconds time bonus on individual general classification
• Tied riders are awarded the same time bonuses 
• The top 3 in the daily “Attractivity Contest Classification” ranking include tied riders. This means that if for instance the top 3 riders have the same amount of points, each obtains a 30 second time bonus and no other bonus is awarded (see example 2 below). In other words, ties in the upper positions cancel time bonuses relative to the inferior positions. For instance, if the top 2 riders are tied and obtain each 30 second time bonuses, the rider next in line obtains the time bonus relative to the 3rd position, i.e, 10 seconds and not that of the 2nd position. 
• The stage classification settles ties on the individual general classification

Example:

11.1.5.3 The daily Race Appeal ranking must be communicated on an ongoing basis during the race via radio-tour such that the actors are permanently informed of the points awarded on each of the animations; the resulting ranking must be updated following each animation.

This all means that with 6 riders per team, the race becomes much more difficult to control and situation on the road can simply get out of hand. Riders attacking early and gathering points on intermediate sprints and mountain passes may gain enough time to become the race leader, even if the peleton brings them back and the final sprint will be claimed by another rider.

The 70th Tour de Pologne starts in four days. Remember - racing commences in Italy with two tough stages in Trentino - with two uphill finishes. The riders will fight for the victory on the slopes of Madonna di Campiglio during stage 1. Naxt day seems to be even harder as it features Passo Pampeago, Passo Costalunga and the final climb of Passo Pordoi.

What's interesting, there are three intermediate sprints on these highly difficult mountain stages. The full TdP preview willbe online tomorrow or, more likely, on Friday, so stay tuned.

You can download full pdf "TdP Rules" here.

Tour de Pologne 2013 and Race Appeal project

This year's Tour de Pologne is going to be special. And it's not only about the 70th edition - for the first time the event starts so far from its home ground - in Trentino, Italy. Two hard mountain stages are going to sort the general classification before the action comes back to Polish roads. But that's not the end of suprises. The UCI also contributes to the organization, changing the number of riders and estabilishing a new classification that can potentially influence the final standings.

First of all - teams. Each squad is allowed to bring 6 riders, not 8. This change is supposed to: highlight the excitement and attractiveness of each day of racing. This is an experiment - we'll see how it works out. But given the conditions, it may be a good idea. The mountain roads in Poland are narrow and cause problems for bigger groups of riders. On the other hand, the average gradient is high and some steep (but not really long) slopes take its toll, breaking the bunch and making the riders struggle alone or in smaller groups.

That's just the begining. From the official race website:

The project introduces a new system of bonus points for riders who win a series of contests organised during each day of racing. These may include intermediate sprints, and mountain pass or hill contests. At the end of each stage a general “Race Appeal” classification will be established by adding up the points awarded. The top riders of this classification will obtain time bonuses on the event’s general classification.

There is no information about the bonuses and their number per stage but believe me - it's not going to be one or two. I don't know if there will be bonus seconds for the top3 on each stage but my guess is: yes, there will. All that is going to make the race harder to control and with 6 riders per team we should see less crashes and more fighting and unexpected situations.

The 70th TdP starts on July 27th and finishes on August 3rd, so it's 8 days long. The route itself seems to be quite demanding - first two stages finish in Dolomites - on Madonna di Campiglio and Passo Pordoi. Then there is a rest day - transfer to Poland. Next to stages - to Rzeszów and to Katowice should be an opportunity for a bunch sprint (however stage 3 can be tricky and losing time can be a matter of temporary carelessness). Stage 5 features some of the well known climbs, for instance - Głodówka (which can be translated as "the hill of the hunger") . Stage 6 - well, last year we had almost the same thing here. I remember Alex Dowsett's tweet before the race: "Mum described the elevation profile as looking like a set of jagged teeth". Indeed, the profile looks just like a comb but the funny thing is that one of the hills is called "Ząb" - in English "tooth"... Anyway, there's an uphill finish so we'll see the riders fighting for the GC once again.

Last stage is a 37-km time trial. The route is undulating, technically demanding in the first part and finishes on the cobbles of the beautiful main square of Kraków. If you haven't been there - it's really worth coming. Kraków is a pearl of Poland - the heart of its medieval statehood. You can feel and touch history on every corner. The main sights are of course: Royal Castle Wawel and the market square of the Old Town (the biggest main square in Europe in Middle Ages) with St. Mary's Basilica (details here) and Drapers' Hall.

You  can see the official promo of the race here:

The video itself is better than the ones we saw for the last couple of years but it's also a compilation of the scenes from last couple of editions (used every in almost every promo, each year), so nihil novi, as we say in Poland. But it's nice that it's been made - broadcasting it in Eurosport during Giro d'Italia is a good idea and as far as I know, there will be one more promo - for the Tour de France time.