Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo) (Image credit: Luczycki Maciej)
Team CSC is sending a strong line up to the Tour of Poland ProTour event from September 9 to 15. Fränk and Andy Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt will go for the overall and the Danish trio Kasper Klostergaard, Allan Johansen and Matti Breschel will fight for stage wins. The team hasn't been particularly successful in any of its first two attempts on the race - no riders finished in the top 10 or collected stage wins.
"I think we have a very strong team here. Our chances of results in the various stages are good. Friday and Saturday will be quite decisive, because the stages are tough, but usually there is one day with side winds, where the pace is extremely fast so we gotta stay awake," said Team CSC's sports director Alain Gallopin according to team-csc.com.
Team Liquigas will offer the debut of 22 year-old Polish racer and national time trial champion Maciej Bodnar and will look to favorites Danilo Di Luca, Filippo Pozzato and Vincenzo Nibali for strong performances.
Di Luca and Pozzato confirmed the race will be good preparation for road worlds. "I feel good. I go to Poland aiming at a result and to close for good the ProTour ranking matter. I've collected important points at Plouay, but an overall good placing this week could give me the definitive success. The decisive stages - continues Di Luca - are grouped in the last days: I will be ready, then I will think only of Stuttgart," said Di Luca.
29 year-old Luxembourg rider and Tour de France seventh-placed finisher Kim Kirchen will lead the T-Mobile Team charge at the race. Kirchen was the overall winner of the ProTour race in 2005 while racing with Fassa Bortolo, and he's looking for a repeat over the medium-mountains profile in central Europe which should suit the stage race specialist.
Fast men Gerald Ciolek and Bernhard Eisel will be hoping to make their top-end speed count in the sprinter friendly stages. "We have two options in the earlier stages: with Ciolek and Eisel we are well covered for bunch sprints," said T-Mobile director Jan Schaffrath. "And we have Kim Kirchen and Marcus Burghardt to go on the hunt for stage wins in breakaways."
Schaffrath will be looking to Gent-Wevelgem winner Burghardt to make his mark when the peloton hits the mountains for a tough final three days of racing. "Marcus has had a very heavy race schedule recently. But if he still has the form and energy to get into the breakaways and land a podium place that that will be terrific."
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Quick.Step-Innergetic for Poland: Dmitry Grabovskyy, Mauro Facci, Giovanni Visconti, Hubert Schwab, Matteo Tosatto, Cedric Vasseur, Jurgen Van De Walle and Wouter Weylandt with directors Davide Bramati and Serge Parsani.
Lampre-Fondital for Poland: Fabio Baldato, Allesandro Ballan, Matteo Bono, Marzio Bruseghin, Roberto Longo, Danilo Napolitano, Daniele Righi and Gorazd Stangelj with managers Fabrizio Bontempi and Bruno Vicino.
Liquigas for Poland: Danilo Di Luca, Filippo Pozzato and Vincenzo Nibali, Eros Capecchi, Kjell Carlström, Murilo Fischer and Aliaksandr Kuchynski.
T-Mobile for Poland: Marcus Burghardt, Gerald Ciolek, Bernhard Eisel, Kim Kirchen, Jakob Piil, Marco Pinotti and Thomas Ziegler with director Jan Schaffrath and Tristan Hoffman.
