Orica-BikeExchange Ready for Tour of Poland & Velon Announce Partnership with Race

The Tour of Poland starts today as the Orica-BikeExchange list their intentions for the team across the week of racing.

A familiar line up of sprinters and GC contenders will make up the Orica-BikeExchange team at the race including Caleb Ewan who just celebrated his 22nd birthday on July 11. It will be Ewan’s first race back after the Giro d’Italia where he had four top-ten finishes. Ewan will be searching for his first win on European soil this season in the fast sprint stages of the Tour of Poland.

Supported by riders like Sam Bewley, Mitch Docker, Luka Mezgec and Jens Keukeleire the team will dedicate most of their efforts to leading the young sprint superstar to stage victories.

Simon Yates will make his return after serving a four-month ban for his accidental doping incident. Yates is aiming for a high GC finish and has Jack Haig as his sole supporter for the hillier stages.

Jack Haig will be at the Tour of Poland in support of Simon Yates but is also expected to perform well and finish among the top contenders. Photo by Sirotti

Closing out the team is Canadian Svein Tuft. The team captain hopes for a personal win on the final stage which happens to be a 25km time trial around Kraków.

Svein Tuft at the Giro d'Italia this year. Tuft is the team captain for the Tour of Poland and will hope for success on the final stage which is a 25km time trial. Photo by Sirotti — Svein Tuft at the Giro d’Italia this year. Tuft is the team captain for the Tour of Poland and will hope for success on the final stage which is a 25km time trial. Photo by Sirotti

The Orica-BikeExchange team will consist of these riders at the Tour of Poland:
Sam Bewley
Mitch Docker
Caleb Ewan
Jack Haig
Jens Keukeleire
Luka Mezgec
Svein Tuft
Simon Yates

Velon have also announced their partnership with the Tour of Poland on the eve of the event.

Cycling fans will see real-time rider performance data being streamed to and combined with the live broadcast TV coverage for each of the race’s seven stages. In addition, the data and broadcast stream will be viewable to all fans via the Velon.cc website and the Velon Pro Cycling app for both iOS and Android.

Each day of the Tour of Poland race, all 11 Velon teams and Movistar Team (who won the 2015 edition with Jon Izagirre), will carry 12 transponders under the saddles of 12 riders, one from each team. Riders carrying the V-Box transponders will change from stage to stage but will include: Michal Kwiatkowski, Diego Ulissi, Bobby Jungels and Alex Dowsett amongst others; the devices will transmit and record the riders’ speed, power output, heart rate, cadence and acceleration/deceleration, relaying the data to the Polish national broadcaster, TVP, for inclusion in their live race broadcast coverage.