An 8-rider squad from CCC Sprandi Polkowice will be competing in the 9-day Austrian event Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt.

"The race around Austria is one of the hardest races on the cycling calendar," Piotr Wadecki, sporting director, says. "Basically every day the riders will have to tackle hills which are a few kilometers long and some are over 10 kilometers long. There are two stages with mountaintop finishes and we are hoping that Jan Hirt will showcase his climbing talent, just like he did at the Tour de Suisse, when he was able to keep up with the best climbers in the world. On other stages we will be trying our luck in the breakaways. There will be six World Tour teams and seven strong ProContinental teams, so it’s going to be very competitive."

In addition tp Hirt, there are few other riders on the roster who feel comfortable in the mountains, like Sylwester Szmyd or Brnislau Samoilau.

The race will start with a 5,4 team time trial in Wien. The next three, hilly stages should suit strong escapees such as Maciej Paterski. The first uphill finish will be held on the fifth day of racing, when the cyclists will be climbing up to Villacher Alpenstrasse. Two days later, the race will run on an even harder course with two HC-category KOMs. The second one, in Kitzbüheler Horn Alpenhaus, is also the finish. In the first part of this stage, the peloton will reach to highest point of the race, at the bottom of Großglockner, 2504 meters above the sea level.

After that exhausting stage, the organizers have planned a day for the fast riders on the penultimate day of racing. The Tour of Austria will be wrapped up with lots of climbing (two cat.1 KOMs), but will finish on the flat roads of Bregenzer Festspiele.

Line-up for Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt-Tour of Austria (2.HC, 4-12.07): 

Jan Hirt, Bartłomiej Matysiak, Sylwester Szmyd, Łukasz Owsian, Maciej Paterski, Leszek Pluciński, Branislau Samoilau, Mateusz Taciak