Since the demise of his Vacansoleil team, Tomasz Marczynski has found himself in a very difficult situation, looking for a new team in a very difficult transfer market. At the last possible moment, the Pole has saved his career by signing a 3-year contract with the CCC Polsat team.
Following the demise of the Vacansoleil team, Tomasz Marczynski saw his career unravel as he was unable to find a new team in a difficult market that was loaded with talented riders. At a time when almost all teams have started racing in 2014, the Pole has managed to save his career, signing a 3-year contract with his home CCC Polsat team.
For several year, Marczynski rode for smaller Italian teams but repeatedly showed great promise as a climber. In 2008, he even won the queen stage of the Vuelta Asturias and in 2009, he was only beaten by Christophe Riblon on a big mountain stage in the Route du Sud.
Those results earned him a contract with the big Polish team CCC Polsat. In 2010, he won the Tour de Seoul and finished 5th in the Tour of Hainan but it was the 2011 season, that showed his potential to the biggest teams in the world. An overall win in the Tour of Malopolska was followed by wins in both his national road race and time trial championships, and this caught the attention of Vacansoleil.
Having joined the Dutch team, he got his 2012 season off to a difficult start but he found his legs in time for the end of the season. In his second grand tour, he finished 13th in the Vuelta a Espana and kept going all the way to the end, finishing 8th in the Tour of Beijing.
Those results made great expectations for the 2013 season where he was set to ride his first Tour de France, even with a focus on the GC. However, an injury plagued throughout the entire season and he raced very little in a year whose highlight was a win in the mountains classification in the Tour de Pologne.
Despite his 2012 results, he has been unable to attract the interest of the bigger teams in a difficult market, and will now step down to pro continental level.
"After the demise of the Vacansoleil team, I knew that Tomasz was looking for a good team where he could continue his career," sports director Piotr Wadecki says. "After all, he is a very good rider and I could not neglect the problems that he faced. For CCC Polsat Polkowice, he has twice become the Polish champion which gave him the chance to ride on the WorldTour. He wanted to develop himself and do the most important races in the world. He confirmed his potential by taking 13th in the Vuelta a Espana.
"After his team folded, we can guarantee him to race at the highest level with the CCC team. Although it wasn't easy as the team for 2014 had long been closed, we decided with the sponsor to shake his hand and sign a three-year contract with him."
At the CCC Polsat team, Marczynski is likely to be one of the star names on a roster that is currently spearheaded by Davide Rebellin, Maciej Paterski and Branislau Samoilau.
Nico CLAESSENS 39 years | today |
Miriam ROMEI 29 years | today |
Jon-Anders BEKKEN 26 years | today |
Thomas JOLY 29 years | today |
Simone CARRO 24 years | today |
© CyclingQuotes.com