| 2018 Tour de Pologne | |
| Series: | 2018 UCI World Tour |
| Race No: | 28 |
| Season No: | 37 |
| Date: | 4–10 August 2018 |
| Stages: | 7 |
| Distance: | 1014 |
| Unit: | km |
| First: | Michał Kwiatkowski |
| First Nat: | POL |
| First Color: | yellow |
| Second: | Simon Yates |
| Second Nat: | GBR |
| Third: | Thibaut Pinot |
| Third Nat: | FRA |
| Mountains: | Patrick Konrad |
| Mountains Nat: | AUT |
| Mountains Color: | violet |
| Sprints: | Michał Kwiatkowski |
| Sprints Nat: | POL |
| Sprints Color: | white |
| Combativity: | Jenthe Biermans |
| Combativity Nat: | BEL |
| Combativity Color: | blue |
| Previous: | 2017 |
| Next: | 2019 |
The 2018 Tour de Pologne was a road cycling stage race that took place between 4 and 10 August in Poland. It was the 75th edition of the Tour de Pologne and the twenty-eighth event of the 2018 UCI World Tour.[1] The race was won by Michał Kwiatkowski riding for .[2]
The sixth stage was initially scheduled to run between Zakopane and Poprad in Slovakia and be 180km (110miles) long, but due to financial difficulties two months before the stage was run, the finish was changed to Bukowina Tatrzańska and the stage rescheduled to run over 130km (80miles).
| Stage | Date | Route | Distance | Type | Winner | Leader of the GC | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 August | 134km (83miles) | Flat stage | Pascal Ackermann | |||||
| 2 | 5 August | Tarnowskie Góry to Katowice | 144km (89miles) | Flat stage | |||||
| 3 | 6 August | Silesian Stadium, Chorzów to Zabrze | 139km (86miles) | Flat stage | Álvaro José Hodeg | ||||
| 4 | 7 August | Jaworzno to Szczyrk | 179km (111miles) | Mountain stage | Michał Kwiatkowski | ||||
| 5 | 8 August | Wieliczka Salt Mine to Bielsko-Biała | 152km (94miles) | Medium-mountain stage | |||||
| 6 | 9 August | Zakopane to Terma Bukowina Tatrzańska | 130km (80miles) | Mountain stage | |||||
| 7 | 10 August | Terma Bukowina Tatrzańska to Bukowina Tatrzańska | 136km (85miles) | Mountain stage | |||||
| Total | 1014km (630miles) | ||||||||
As the 2018 Tour de Pologne was a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI WorldTeams were invited automatically and obliged to enter a team into the race. Along with a Polish national team, three other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 22-team peloton.
Because of the peloton being misled onto an incorrect route, the stage was shortened by 12km (07miles).[3]
In the 2018 Tour de Pologne, four different jerseys were awarded. The general classification was calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and allowing time bonuses for the first three finishers at intermediate sprints (three seconds to first, two seconds to second and one second to third) and at the finish of all stages: the stage winner won a ten-second bonus, with six and four seconds for the second and third riders respectively. The leader of the classification received a yellow jersey; it was considered the most important of the Tour de Pologne, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points for | 20 | 14 | 10 | 6 | 4 | |
| Points for | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Points for | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Points for | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Points for | 1 | 0 | ||||
Additionally, there was a sprints classification, which awarded a white jersey. In the points classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 20 in a stage. For winning a stage, a rider earned 20 points, with a point fewer per place down to 1 point for 20th place. The fourth and final jersey represented the active rider classification, marked by a blue jersey. This was decided at the race's intermediate sprints, awarding points on a 3–2–1 scale.
There was also a classification for Polish riders, with the highest-placed rider appearing on the podium each day. As well as this, a teams classification was also calculated, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.
| Stage | Winner | (pl|Żółta koszulka) | Mountains classification (pl|Klasyfikacja górska) | Polish rider classification (pl|Najlepszy Polak) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1 | Michał Paluta | Alessandro De Marchi | |||||
| scope=row | 2 | Pascal Ackermann | Jenthe Biermans | |||||
| scope=row | 3 | Álvaro José Hodeg | Álvaro José Hodeg | |||||
| scope=row | 4 | Michał Kwiatkowski | Michał Kwiatkowski | Jan Tratnik | Michał Kwiatkowski | |||
| scope=row | 5 | Michał Kwiatkowski | ||||||
| scope=row | 6 | Georg Preidler | Łukasz Owsian | |||||
| scope=row | 7 | Simon Yates | Michał Kwiatkowski | Patrick Konrad | ||||
| Final | Michał Kwiatkowski | Michał Kwiatkowski | ||||||