Two stages in the Italian Dolomites, small 6-rider rosters and rule changes that include substantial bonuss seconds for the riders with most points in the intermediate and KOM points, make this year's Tour de Pologne a unique experience. As usual, the 7-stage race is the first step on the long road towards the Vuelta for those riders that didn't race the Tour, and this year is no exception as riders like Vincenzo Nibali, Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran are just some of the riders tat kick start the second half of their season in Poland. At the same time, a certain Sir Bradley Wiggins has started his journey towards the world TT championships with 7 days of racing in the Polish national tour. Starting at 16.55, you can follow today's stage that takes places on a well-known hilly circuit in Zakopane, on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

One of the Tour de Pologne classics await the riders today when they will tackle a 160,5km stage from Nowy Targ to Zakopane. Early in the stage the riders will climb the uncategorized ascent to Bukowina Tatrzanska (5km, 4,4%) which will play a key role on Friday's stage and has a 1-kilometre 8,1% section at its midpoint.  A descent and subsequent flat stretch lead the riders to the category 1 Lapszanka climb (6km, 4,9%) which is followed immediately by another climb up to Bukowina Tatrzanska where the peloton will enter the finishing circuit. A descent will bring the riders to the bottom of the category 2 Zakopane climb (7km, 2,6%) where a short descent and a final kilometre with a 3,1% gradient will lead them to the first passage of the finish line.

The peloton will then tackle two laps on a 40,5km finishing circuit that is up and down all the time. In addition to the Zakopane climb, the Glodowka  climb (8km, 3,0%) has also been categorized as a category 2 climb but has a very long descent to the bottom of the Zakopane ascent. The finishing straight is 1km long and only has a very slight bend towards the end. The uphill finish and the many climbs are enough to put the pure sprinters into difficulty but it is not a day to create any separation among the GC contenders. It should be won by one of the most resistant sprinters as is seen from the three most recent winners: Edvald Boasson Hagen, Peter Sagan and Ben Swift.

Usually the GC riders try to take advantage of the hilly course to make differences but the climbs are not hard enough for their mission to be successful. Instead, there is little doubt that riders like Thor Hushovd, Swift, Luka Mezgec, Francisco Ventoso, Daniele Ratto, Michal Golas, Mathieu Ladagnous, Jeffry Romero, Leonardo Duque and Grega Bole see this as an opportunity to show that they are much more than your typical sprinters. However, the stage will be very difficult to control for the small 6-rider teams and it is certainly not impossible that an escapee can finish off his work on this difficult circuit. Finally, there are many KOM points on offer in the final part of the race and that means that the new rules that award bonus seconds to the riders who collect many points in the intermediate and KOM sprints, could really come into play and thus create some GC changes after all.

Starting at 16.55 you can follow the stage here.