La Coupe du Président de la Ville de Grudziadz 2014 race preview

Just a few days after Tour of istria we have another stage race for juniors with 2.1 uci category. 26th La Coupe du Président de la Ville de Grudziadz (kinda long and bizzare name since its in french and the race is Poland but i guess it's a try to make a name more international and recognizable for foreigners) held around the city of Grudziadz, organized by ALKS Stal Grudziadz, polish club team. The race is being more and more international throught the years with some of the big names on the winners list like Ignatev in 2003, Kritskiy in 2004 and of course Michał Kwiatkowski in 2007. And Niklas Arndt one year later.

2013 podium: Patryk Krzywda, Patrik van der Duin, Daniel Hartvig

Total distance of 408,1 kilometers was divided into four (actually five) stages. During the first day we will have team time trial (Garuta - Łasin, 12.5km)  in the morning which is not very popular in junior events and later on the first road stage around Jabłonowo Pomorskie city (96,5km). I haven't found any info about the climbers jersey or climbs at all so my guess is that the race is basically flat and all of the stages are pretty much criteriums with two or more loops around the cities.

On the second day we will have 96,5km long stage around Chełmża city with two big loops around the town. The next stage is slightly longer but the loops around the city (this time it's Świecie) are much shorter and we will have six of them. The final day around Grudziadz is also the longest one with 109,5km and three loops around the city.

Tobiasz Pawlak winning stage two in Chełmża

The route is basically the same as in previous years with all the city hosts being exactly the same as last year. The first stage (TTT) is going to be very important for the overall. Last year SMS Świdnica (Polish club team) have won the first stage and their rider, Patryk Krzywda have won the overall classification. Rest of the stages end up with group sprints except stage around Świdnica which ended in small srpint from a group of ten riders with future winner Krzywda.

There is no startlist for the race but according to race website we can expect teams from: Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belgium, Israel, Norway, Finland, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Poland and the regional and club teams from the Poland.

Race website
Roadmap