Less than a week has gone past since the Tour de France finished but for many star riders who spent July away from racing, including Australia's Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team), the Tour de Pologne has already raised the curtain on what looks set to be an intriguing second half of the season.
The 27-year-old had a first half of 2017 with very mixed fortunes. A crash out of the Giro d'Italia in the first week was one major setback, but two wins in the Tour de Suisse, bookending the race in its two time trials, were the latest triumphs in a series of victories stretching back as far as the Australian Time Trial Nationals in January.
There are no time trials – Dennis' strongest suit, but far from his only one – in the Tour de Pologne, where he's currently taking part. But as Dennis told Cyclingnews at the start of the opening stage in Krakow's main square, his remaining top 2017 objectives are likely a little further down the line than in Eastern Europe's premier stage race.
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"I'm not too worried about what goes on here," Dennis says. "I've been out of racing for just over a month, having not raced since Suisse. I'm looking to do well in the Vuelta a España and hopefully have a place for the World's, and that way I can come away a good result at the end of the year. Here it's more to get the legs moving, and if something happens, it happens."
As he eyes doing two Grand Tours in the same season for the first time in his career Dennis is moving into uncharted waters in other ways. He has never raced in Poland before on the road, for thing although he says he has very good memories of his previous visit to the country, when he took part the 2009 Track World Championships just outside Warsaw. The Vuelta a España is more familiar territory, given he finished the race back in 2014, taking 84th and a third place in the last, short, time trial in Santiago de Compostela.
"I'll just be doing here and then go on to the Vuelta," Dennis says. "I've done a lot of racing before and if I try to do any more, there's only two weeks between here and the Vuelta's opening team time trial in Nimes. I'll be going for a stage or two there in the Vuelta, and if I can do well in them, that should transfer across to the GC."
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