Tour de Pologne

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 from 7–11 September 1928. 71 cyclists rode almost 1,500 km — the winner was Felix Więcek from the Bydgoszcz Cycling Club. The honorary patrons of the race included President of the Second Polish Republic Ignacy Mościcki while the President of the Honorary Committee was Marshal Józef Piłsudski.[4][5]

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.[6]

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.[7] 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).[8]

In 1993, Czesław Lang, the 1980 Summer Olympics cycling road race silver medalist and the winner of the 1980 TdP, took over the function of TdP Director. Thanks to his persistent efforts, the TdP is now a UCI World Ranking event.[9]

In 1997, during the UCI congress in San Sebastian, TdP advanced to the professional category of 2.4, and was classified as a "National Race" (the first of its kind in Central and Eastern European countries).

At the 1999 UCI Road World Championships, the UCI Technical Commission promoted the race to Class 2.3. On 12 October 2001 the Tour was promoted to category 2.2.[10]

In the 2005 decision of the UCI, the TdP was included in the elite of cycling events — the UCI ProTour.[11] The composition of the sample were three Grand Tours: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, classic World Cup, staged races 2.HC category (i.e. Paris–Nice, Tour de Suisse), the classics 1.HC (i.e. La Flèche Wallonne - The Walloon Arrow) and the TdP, which was advanced by 2 categories to 2HC.

Over several years, the activities of Polish precursor of professional law enforcement — Czeslaw Lang, Kolarska amateur event, known in the mainly communist countries, has been transformed into a well-organized professional race. This resulted in the groups with the top names of professional cycling such as Danilo Di Luca, Laurent Brochard, Óscar Freire, Romāns Vainšteins, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Gianluca Bortolami, Erik Dekker, Stefano Garzelli, Vincenzo Nibali and Jonas Vingegaard as well as cyclists like Mark Cavendish, Cadel Evans, Fabio Aru, Baden Cooke, Daniele Bennati, Richard Carapaz, Matej Mohorič, Simon Yates, Jakob Fuglsang, Dan Martin, Thibaut Pinot, Bradley Wiggins, André Greipel, Remco Evenepoel, Geraint Thomas and Peter Sagan.

Tour de Pologne received the title of "Best Sport Event of the Year" on six occasions in the Przegląd Sportowy polls in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2015.[12]

The Czech Republic, Italy and Slovakia are the three countries which have hosted stages or part of a stage of Tour de Pologne: (Český Těšín in 2010, 2011 and 2012, Trentino South Tirol in 2013 and Štrbské Pleso in 2014).[13][14][15][16]