Initial Tour de Pologne wildcards announced

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Four of the five wildcard places on offer for the 2012 Tour de Pologne have been decided, race officials have revealed. The Polish national team will be joined by Pro Continental outfits Team Type1-Sanofi, Colnago-CSF Inox and Caja Rural for the race that runs from July 10-16. A fifth wildcard berth will be allocated closer to the event.

The Tour de Pologne was first staged in 1928 and became part of the UCI ProTour in 2005. Since then it has attracted a higher calibre of field and in recent years has followed the Tour de France. However, the two events are scheduled to clash this year and this will undoubtedly have an effect on the quality of the peloton lining up at the start but according to race director Czeslaw Lang, there has been plenty of interest in the race.

“For the 2012 wildcard assignments we received lots of requests to participate from teams all over the world and for us this is a source of enormous satisfaction,” he said. “It underscores once again how this race is growing in importance.”

The presence of Caja Rural should ensure that home talent Karol Domagalski lines up in July, while for the Polish national team, the race is the high point of the season.

"To ride on hometown streets wearing the national jersey is always wonderful," Lang said. "For our young riders the Tour de Pologne is an important showcase to stand out on an international level.”