Race analysis, favourites, and predictions for Tour de Pologne 2019

The Tour de Pologne will be the first World Tour race after the Tour de France, and although we may be suffering a small hangover, it presents a couple of novelties of interest for the 2019 edition. In stage 4, the unprecedented end in the Kocierz wall can be decisive for GC battle, as well as the incorporation of another new KOM summit near the end of stage 6. Stages 1,2,3 and 5 seem ideal for sprinters, while 4, 6 and 7 will be decisive for GC, which is usually decided by a few seconds.

Michael Kwiatkowski (1200) will be defending the title, although his performance in this year's Tour de France was well below his performance in previous editions. The Astana Miguel Ángel López (1200) and Ion Izagirre (1200) are presented as main alternatives, in a list of favorites which includes Rafal Majka (1000), Diego Ulissi (800) or Matej Mohoric (800), among others.

The startlist also includes a lot of fast men for massive sprints: Pascal Ackermann (1200), Fernando Gaviria (1000), John Degenkolb (1000), Simone Consonni (1000), Mike Teunissen (600) or Rüdiger Selig (600) will take the start.