68 Tour de Pologne - Częstochowa 1 sierpień 2011

68 Tour de Pologne - Start do 2 etapu - Częstochowa 1 sierpień 2011
68 Tour de Pologne - Start to the II stage - Czestochowa 1st august 2011

Tour de Pologne, the road bicycle race, is the most prestigious Polish sport event, with an 80-year tradition. The first Tour de Pologne took place in September 1928. 71 cyclists participated in that race. The first race was organized by the Warsaw Cycling Society and the "Przegląd Sportowy" newspaper. From the very beginning, the race was regarded as one of the largest sports events in Poland. The tradition of the race was revived after World World II in 1947. Until 1992 it was organized as an amateur race.

In 1993, a new chapter began in the history of Tour de Pologne. Czesław Lang, the 1980 Olympics silver medallist and the precursor of Polish professional cycling, invested his own money in the struggling venture. In a short time it became a world class event. International cycling stars started to appear among the professional teams participating in the Tour, such as Maurizio Fondriest, Paweł Tonkov, Peter Lutenberger, Adriano Baffi, Andy Hampsten, Marco Pantani, Jewgienij Bierzin, Dmitri Konyshev, Marcus Zberg, Jens Voigt, Peter van Petegem, Tom Steels, Jaan Kirsipuu, Alexander Vinocourov, Chris Boardman, Stuart O'Grady, Danilo Di Luca, as well as the best Polish riders - Zbigniew Spruch, Zenon Jaskuła and Dariusz Baranowski.

Over next few years the race has been promoted by the UCI, reaching Class 2.2 in 2004. In the 2005 season, Tour de Pologne was included in the ProTour cycle, as the only event of this kind in Central and Eastern European countries. The last two editions of the race were huge events and attracted a great deal of attention from the media. Millions of people watched the race live on Polish TV, and for the first time in history the event was transmitted by Eurosport 2, in nine languages, and in 40 countries. Almost 2 million spectators observed the race on the road, more than 6 thousand press articles have been published and 80 thousand Internet users watched the online streaming coverage.

The race is accompanied by many events; over 10 thousand young cyclists took part in Mini Tour de Pologne. Sports and cultural events were organised in the stage towns.

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