Tour of Poland might clash with Tour de France because of London Olympics – Cycling News
London Olympics are scheduled from July 27 to August 12, 2012 and that might cause Tour of Poland and Tour de France to be held at the same time. Race organiser Czeslaw Lang told a popular cycling website that they have tried to convince the UCI if they
can show some flexibility to move the dates because it is not possible to have the race with the Olympics.
If UCI allows the change in dates, the Tour of Poland will be a good alternative for the Olympics.
“The race would be held during the last week of the Tour de France,” as Lang said he is not worried about the race starting alongside Tour de France as he further added, “We’ve asked UCI if it’s possible to move the dates, because of the TV coverage, it’s
impossible to have the race at the same time as the Olympics.”
Tour of Poland 2011 started from the country’s capital, Warsaw as cyclists moved to Katowice with main stages held in South with the race finishing in Krakow. There was a possibility that the Tour in 2012 might take cyclists in the northern part of Poland
but the hosted cities of 2011 Tour are insisting to host it one more year.
It is very much possible that the Tour of Poland might start from outside the country but organisers have made it clear that it will not happen before 2013. The Trentino region in Italy is most likely to host the start stages of Tour of Poland as there it
is a favourite touring spot for Polish people and is the current Tour of Poland sponsor.
Lang believes that, Tour de France might be helping Tour of Poland to be known all around the world and that there is no rivalry between the two races.
Tour of Poland organisers believed that having two world tour events together will be useful and as there is no major time conflict between the two events, it is very much possible to overlap the events.
Cyclists who have less chances to race during Tour de France will benefit from this opportunity and can race in Tour of Poland which will be an attractive event, especially for cyclists looking ahead for London Olympics.
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