The Sibiu Cycling Tour will take place once again in 2017, winding through the country of Romania from July 5th to July 9th.
The Prologue will take place in the historic city center in Sibiu on a flat 2.3 kilometer that navigates the 12th central Transylvanian city of approximately 150,000 citizens.
Nineteen teams from across Europe and the United States will be participating in the 2017 edition of the race.
Headlining the race will be three Pro Continental squads, which includes the Italian team Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, Polish team CCC Spandi Polkowice, and American team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling.
The Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermec squad will likely be looking to support their rider Mattia Cattaneo. Cattaneo rode for the WorldTour team Lampre-Merida from 2013 to 2016, riding for the team in last year's Vuelta a Espana. Cattaneo has been putting up strong finishes in 2017 so far, taking second at the Tour La Provence and Classic Sud-Ardeche, and fifth at the Italian National Time Trial Championship.
As for CCC Sprandi Polkowice, the Polish squad will have two riders that we could see finish atop the general classification in Romania, defending champion Nikolay Mihaylov and Maciej Paterski.
While Mihaylov has not had the same results so far in 2017 that he achieved in 2016, he is still the defending champion and has returned to a race that he found great success at last year. Mihaylov has been prolific in his success in Bulgaria, having won three Bulgarian National Time Trial Championships and two Bulgarian National Road Race Championships in his career.
Paterski has had an outstanding 2017 season thus far, capturing overall titles at the Tour of Malopolska and Szlakiem Walk Majora Hubala. The Polish rider has also had significant finishes in the past, winning the general classification at the Tour of Norway in 2014 and taking the overall, points, and mountains classification titles at the 2015 Tour of Croatia.
It will be interesting to see if both Mihaylov and Paterski will be looking for the general classification victory at this year's edition of the Sibiu Cycling Tour, or if one rider will step aside to assist their teammate in pursuit of the overall title.
UnitedHealthcare's Daniel Jaramillo is in good form in 2017, and will be another rider with a shot at the overall title in this year's Sibiu Cycling Tour. Jaramillo captured the overall title at the Tour de Hongrie earlier this year, before winning the mountains classification at the Tour of California, a UCI World Tour race. Jaramillo is comfortable climbing, and the hilly Romanian countryside will favor the Columbian rider.
Continental team riders that have a great shot to be on the podium in Sibiu on July 9th include, Team Illuminate rider Edwin Avila, 0711 Rider Jan Hugger, Roth-Akros-Elvetia Rider Colin Stussi, and Tusnad Drag rider Leonid Krasnov.
The Tusnad Drag team will be the sole Romanian professional squad at the Sibiu Cycling Tour, but a group of six other Romanian riders will be competing as part of a team that represents the country of Romania.
The Sibiu Cycling Tour will officially commence on July 5th at 6 p.m. local time in Sibiu, Romania, where 94 riders will take on a 2.3 kilometer individual time trial.
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