One year after his surprise victory, Pieter Weening is ready to defend his title in the Tour de Pologne. The Dutchman leads an Orica-GreenEDGE team that also contains sprinter Michael Matthews and Cameron Meyer who is a second GC option.

Dutchman Pieter Weening will return to defend his Tour of Poland title this weekend, leading a motivated ORICA-GreenEDGE line up for the seven-day Tour starting on Sunday.

Full of confidence in one of his most successful seasons yet, Weening is coming off an altitude training block and a solo victory at Italian one-day race Giro della Toscana last weekend.

The eight riders for the Tour of Poland are: Brett Lancaster, Cameron Meyer, Christian Meier, Ivan Santoromita, Michael Matthews, Mitch Docker, Pieter Weening and Sam Bewley.

Sport director David McPartland said the overall victory would again be the team’s highest priority.

“We are the defending champions and we are trying to win the overall or achieve the highest place possible in the general classification,” McPartland said.

“We have the man to do it with defending champion Pieter (Weening). 

“He’ll be our main protected rider but we also have Cam Meyer who will be his right hand man and can also be another possibility if something was to happen to Pieter.”

The Tour of Poland starts with opportunities for the fast men, including two opening long 200km+ flat stages. The overall battle fires up on stage five with the Tour’s only hilltop finish before a lumpy final road stage and closing 25km individual time trial.

“Michael Matthews will be protected as our sprinter but he is also coming back from injury so we need to see how he is travelling,” McPartland said.

“In terms of our main aim in the general classification, the last two road stages are critical. 

“There is a hill top finish on the fifth stage but it’s also the day after in Slovakia could potentially be even more crucial. 

“And the time trial speaks for itself. Pieter won it last year in the time trial so it has every chance of coming down to that final day again.”