Giro 2013: stage 18

The Giro is entering its crucial part as the riders are facing the fight against the clock on the slopes of Polsa. The stage could prove to be decesive - due to horrible weather conditions the final mountain stages, where the race was supposed to be decided, are about to be called off. So is the chance of gaining time on the rivals and even with the new course - the riders cannot gamble and make calculations. RCS is working on plan B - the decision will be announced today but looking at the state of affairs on the slopes of Passo Gavia, Passo dello Stelvio and even San Pellegrino, I cannot see the possibility of the race going up there.

The time trial is 20,6 km long, the average gradient is 5,2%. The stage consists of two parts - 10 kilometers climb (avg. 6.6%) and 7 km climb (also 6.6%), separated by 4 km of  "false flat" - bumpy part that seems to be an opportunity to rest for a while and catch one's breath. In fact, this part won't help riders much - not everyone likes to change the rhythm, once he finds the suitable one.

There has been so many previews (I wrote mine too, in Polish, of course) that I don't feel like writing one more. The duel between Evans and Nibali will be vital for the podium fate - Australian is 1:26 behind the "Shark" and has to gain some time if he wants to wear maglia rosa. Nibali on the other hand is riding very well, not losing time and will be very hard to beat him. Remember, he did very well during the first time trial, roaring around the 54.8 km course only 21 seconds slower than Alex Dowsett.

It would also be interesting to see how Rigoberto Uran manages - Colombian rider was flying on the first part of the first individual time trial before fading and losing 1:48 to Dowsett. His countryman Carlos Alberto Betancur is the next one to watch out for - he's currently holding maglia bianca - his aim in the race. 

Majka and Niemiec

The purpose of this blog is to write more about Polish riders so that's what I'm going to do. Three guys from Poland are participating in the race, two of them place in the top10, marking the best Grand Tour for Polish cycling since many many years. Przemysław Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) and Rafał Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) are riding a fabulous race and are on their way to achieve the results of their careers and beat Zenon Jaskuła's record in the Italian Grand Tour (9th in 1991).

They both know how to ride such time trials. Niemiec has been racing in Italy for years and fought against the clock on the uphill. He even won a mountain time trial on the slopes of Port de Bales, back in 2006, during Route du Sud, where he eventually placed 4th. You can find some more good results from such stages in his palmares.

Niemiec is riding the race of his life so far - he climbs very well and is clearly stronger and more consistent than his team leader Michele Scarponi. He also rides better in extreme conditions - snow and 0 degrees are nothing special for him - this is the racing (or training I should say) reality in Poland till late March.

Przemek also rode one of the best time trials in his entire career. "I haven't had such a good  time trial since 2004" - 33-year-old said after the stage. "I got a green light from the team, I didn't have to save energy. Giuseppe Saronni was following me in a car and I rode 100%". Niemiec started the race as a gregario - he was supposed to help Scarponi and now is one of the leaders - sitting in the 5th place and trying to get himself a stage win.

What is Przemek capable of? Who knows? Before the stage he said that he'll go full gas again - no calculations, just giving it everything he possibly can.

Although Majka is a climber and the time trials are not really what he prefers, young Pole stays optimistic. 23-year-old planned to lauch attacks on Friday and Saturday when the long and exhausting climbs were supposed to decimate the peleton and make everyone, even GC contenders, suffer and once more realize that cycling is one of the toughest sports on the planet. The plan may fail in the wake of recent problems with the snow and more and more probable route change. The time trial? Going uphill isn't the problem for rider from Zegartowice. He lacks in experience, that's for sure, although he won the uphill prologue in 2010 during Carpathian Couriers Race.

What is important and you may have no idea about - Majka is not fighting for the white jersey. He concentrates on the general classification and would like to win the stage. As I mentioned, the task may be harder than expected due to the route changes.

The time trial starts now, time to work.

Rafał Majka and the Giro

Rafał Majka seems to be one of the biggest revelations of this year's Giro d'Italia. Polish rider was chosen to lead Bjarne Riis' Team Saxo-Tinkoff despite early season troubles with the knee and is now showing that the Dane's decision was right. Despite his young age, he proves that he's capable of leading the squad and fighting with the best riders in the world.

Majka has already showed his abilities during 2012 Vuelta a Espana where he worked for his team leader Alberto Contador. In fact, he'd been scheduled to ride Giro d'Italia 2012 and lead the team but the same knee injury excluded him from racing for a couple of months. 

This year's e return was not so certain and simple as it may seem. Majka started racing in Catalunya - after a month of dealing with knee injury that renewed on February. He resumed trainings on March 10th, rode Catalunya and trained on the altitude for the first two weeks of April. The last check before Giro was Tour de Romandie where he went to train and get used to racing rhythm. He didn't finish the event as during stage 4 he decided to stop due to bad weather conditions.

Heading to Naples for the start of the Giro, he only had 12 racing days in his legs. Majka declared that a couple of days, perhaps a week, will be needed to let him get into the best shape. He is now back in action and is performing well, giving Riis reasons to fell that sigining him for the next three years after last year's Vuelta was a smart and well-considered idea.

It has been a good week for Majka so far. Young Pole stayed away from troubles on tricky descents and wet corners, following the GC contenders easily on every ascent - in sunshine and in the rain. The problems emerged however on the descents - rider from Zegartowice isn't taking much risk and chooses not to follow over certain speed. That costed him 34 seconds on a crazy stage to Marina di Ascea.

First week was really nervous. I had to be at the front all the time because things were changing very quickly - Majka told rowery.org during the first rest day. - There were a lot of crashes, the weather was simply awful. All that makes me a little tired after the first week.

23-year-old rider marks his debut as a team leader in a Grand Tour with Team Saxo-Tinkoff. It's been only a week and young rider managed to repeat the achievement of Joachim Halupczok - the first Polish rider to wear maglia bianca (1990). Today, after the first real mountain stage, is showing his potential, finishing 6th on the final climb of the day and climbing to 10th place in the general classification. - I'm happy to wear the white jersey. I think I can take it again later in the race - Majka declared yesterday. Today he's smiling on the podium and wearing best young rider jersey.

Majka is also happy to have the time trial behind him. 54.8 km technical route never seemed to suit him and his time trialling skills. As a pure climber, Majka admits that the fight against the clock is not really his thing. That changes, however. 
 
- I've never ridden such a long time trial. It was really exhausting - especially last 15 km where I had to push really hard. It wasn't a bad performance, I'm satisfied with it. I lost a little time in the first technical part and on the descent but considering the length of the course - the result seems to be good. 

Majka finished 31th, losing 3:27 to victorious Alex Dowsett of Movistar. This only indicates the progress he has made - a year ago such a result wouldn't be possible. Before today's stage Rafał was sitting 16th overall and looking forward to improving his situation. When I asked him what are his expectations and what is he planning to do, he replied:

- I don't know, honestly. It's been a good race for me so far, I can fight for the general classification. I've nevr done such a big race riding for myself, so I have no idea how my body will react to such an effort. But it's going to be ok, my shape is getting better and better. 

Today "Rafa" is 10th in the GC and is looking forward to next tough stages. Saxo-Tinkoff's DS Dan Frost says that the time for Rafał comes in the third week, when the real mountains start and where every rider will struggle to survive. But this is Giro, you can never tell what happens next. Time will tell.

Giro d'Italia 2013: Majka, Niemiec and Gołaś

The first week of the Giro is over, the first rest day is about to start this evening, so I thought it's a good idea to write something. I have to admit - I don't have much time - writing about cycling in Polish and all standard duties make it impossible to find time and write down some notes. 

May started great - I've been to Slovakia, enjoing Carpathian Couriers Race, where I worked as "twitter man" or..eee, whatever - I was doing live race ticker on Twitter,  wrote a couple race reports in English (you can find them here: http://carpathianrace.eu/?cat=2), made a few interviews and had a really good time. 

Ok, back to Giro.  First of all - it was great to watch Adam Hansen win the stage 7. I've always liked the guy - sense of humor, hard work and skills in many fields. That was absolutely amazing, I really enjoyed it.

I'm also so happy about Dowsett's victory. I've been watching him since he turned pro - yesterday he rode the time trial of his life - beat everyone on a difficult and demanding route, with technical start and steep finish. Winning a stage in your Grand Tour debut must be something breathtaking and hard to describe, it's defenitely a big step in his career. I remember that it was a suprise for me when he announced that Eusebio Unzue will be his manager next year but now it seems that Alex has found his place in the team. There has been a grin on my face when I realized that Alex is going to claim it - a year ago we talked on Twitter and I decided to introduce him to Polish Wikipedia. I wrote an article and today I'm happy that collegues from the project can add such an important win to his palamres.

We have three Polish guys riding this Grand Tour. They are all doing really well, I'll be probably talking to them during the rest day, so I'll have much more to report then.

Przemysław Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) is riding the Grand Tour of his life so far. His main objective is to help Michele Scarponi. They both put a tremendous effort into yesterday's time trial - Scarponi followed the Colombians who were absolutely flying, while Niemiec placed 16th, losing only 2:13. 

You have to remeber that Niemiec is a pure climber, time trialling is not really his thing. He's been working on it this year like the whole team, though. Testing new equipement and working on his position pays off - he's now 9th in the GC. Before the time trial it was not so sure, however. Niemiec said that the DS will decide if he can go full gas or save the energy. Przemek did well - it's a good sign - Lampre has two strong riders who are going to support each other and fight for this. Ah, I don't expect him to do anything today but Niemiec knows Fiesole climb and the region inside out as he's been living there for years.

Michał Gołaś (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) is easy to be spotted in the peleton. Michał wears Polish national champion jersey (which at some point can be confused with Pellizotti's) and is visible even from helicopter camera. 

Gołaś is in a good shape, no doubt about it. He's improved his climbing a little and his main objective in this race is to win a stage. He tried in Matera (11th place) where he avoided the crash and managed to get himself into the first group, alongside with his teammate Matteo Trentin. Guys got a little confused - Gołaś wanted to help Trentin and Trentin wanted to lead-out Gołaś and as a result John Degenkolb claimed the victory. 

Before the time trial Michał declared that he has to lose some time to be later allowed to attack and look for the opportunity to win a stage. Today seems like a good choice but it's hard to predict anything - it's Giro.

Rafał Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - no problems uphill, slight trouble downhill. Rafał is riding very carefully, not losing time and waiting for the big, sorry, I should say BIG, mountains. He claimed maglia bianca on a rainy stage to Pescara but (as predicted) was not able to defend it in the time trial. 

Majka is the first Polish rider to wear white jersey in the Giro since Joachim Halupczok in 1990 (he took it after the time trial but abandoned a couple days later). Rafał isn't such a good time trialist as Halupczok was but we believe that he's got the power to blow the peleton in the mountains. Maglia bianca and any other possible successes are treated as bonuses - Polish rider focuses on the GC and wants to be as high as possible. Yesterday's time trial was the longest fight agianst the clock in his entire life. "I've never ridden such a long time trial" - Majka admitted before going off the ramp. He lost only 3:27 and is now 17th, 4 minutes down. But the stages he'd like to avoid are now behind him and Rafał is thinking of the 3rd week. 

Tomorrow perhaps something about Giro in general. 


P.S. Bartosz Huzarski (Team NetApp-Endura) starts Tour de California today. He'll be helping Jan Barta and Leo Koenig. His next races are Criterium du Dauphine, Polish national road championships (in his home town) and then - Vuelta a Espana.

Polish riders: Current situation

This is my first real entry so it's going to be a little long. There are a lot of Polish riders in pro peleton, so I just want to give you a short insight into their plans and current situation. This way it will be much easier for you to follow the updates in the following months. As I said, there a lot of things I work on, so no time to lose, here we go.

I'd like to start with Przemysław Niemiec (Lampre-Merida). He's doing really well this year - 9th in Tirreno-Adriatico (with 8th place on the stage to Chieti), 7th in Volta a Catalunya (8th place on Vallter 2000) and now 6th in Giro del Trentino, after a tremendous amount of work during the last stage and Sega di Ala climb. Remember, he is riding for a WT team for a second year only.

Niemiec doesn't fancy changes of rhythm, prefers riding his own tempo - just like he did in Vuelta a Espana 2012 (15th place). He likes Trentino - in 2009, riding for Miche, he placed 3rd and won a stage. When we exchanged messages yesterday, after the race, he was satisfied with his performance:

"The last stage was really good for me, the whole team supported me and I think I did very well. The final climb was really hard. I've been just keeping my own rhythm and trying not to lose too much time. 3rd place during such a tough stage, with so many good riders here, I think it's a very good result."

33-year-old had been training on the slopes of Etna earlier this month and made it clear that participation in Giro del Trentino will be a final test for him before Giro d'Italia, where his objective is to help Michele Scarponi and (perhaps) look for opportunities for himself.

I also asked him about Wiggins, as he as riding along him for some time in the final of stage 4. "Wiggins was unlucky, had problems with his chain but is in a good shape and will be very strong during Giro." And Scarponi? "Michele wasn't pushing hard on the last stage because he wants to make a good result in Liege-Bastogne-Liege".

Bartosz Huzarski

Huzarski (Team NetApp-Endura) is currently trying to find the right gear for this season. The spring wasn't successful but during Trentino there have been signs that indicate that it's all going in a good direction. He is satisfied with the result in the TTT - claims that they did very very well (4th place). He has also been a part of a breakaway during stage 4 and was the last man standing, being caught at the very begining of Sega di Ala. He now concentrates on the upcoming races - Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt and Tour of California.

Sylwester Szmyd

Polish most experienced rider Sylwester Szmyd (Movistar) is preparing for Tour de France. Polish climber hasn't had a great season so far and earlier this year admitted that not everything is going as planned. Being an experienced rider, he also said that "the form is like good wine - it requires time, has to ripen". But after Vuelta a Castilla y Leon (when Movistar's Ruben Plaza managed to secure the 1st place in the GC) Szmyd looked a little more satisfied and is now expecting to do better in Tour de Romandie.

"Valverde is riding... but we won't be interrupting each other" - Szmyd wrote on his website recently.

Rafał Majka

Tour de Romandie will be the 2nd start for Rafał Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) this year. 23-year-old Polish climber stuggled with knee problems at the begining of the season (the same injury unabled him to start Giro d'Italia last year) and competed only in Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. Fortunately, everything seems to be ok now, the problem is over and Rafał resumed trainings some time ago. He spent 17 days on the altitude, training near Mount Etna, Sicily. He's riding Romandie and Giro - first one to do some training and catch some racing rhythm. Giro d'Italia? Who knows? Rafał says that his legs will be doing best after the first week  - when he gets used to racing intensity. Let's hope so - there is no clear leader in Saxo-Tinkoff team and if you followed Vuelta 2012 closely, you may have the idea how strong Rafał can be.

(Not sure you heard it, the story is a little old but when Majka signed his 1st contract with Saxo-Tinkoff, the rumours were saying that he impressed Riis with his ride during winter camp. What exactly happened? I don't know, rumours say that Alberto Contador was unable to drop him on a climb. The other version: Majka dropped Contador on a climb).

Karol Domagalski

Domagalski (Caja Rural) is a tall, humble and nice guy from Skała (near Kraków), who is riding for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA for the second year. He's still learning and gaining experience - not only by attacking and trying to get to the finish before the bunch, helping his teammates on the finish but also by making mistakes and facing the lack of luck. What is important, he's made a progress, rides better than last year and still wants to improve.

His next race is Tour of Turkey and I'm sure he'll be riding with panache, trying to get himself a stage win. So, if there is a breakaway on the road,  he's likely to be there. Good luck, wining as stage as a pro will surely be good for him and his future development.

Finally, there has been a lot of writing about Michał Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) recently, so I'm not going to quote his team's website or translate my articles on him. He's been very consistent for the last couple of weeks, he is looking forward to riding Liege-Bastogne-Liege and wants to do his best there.

Perhaps you've heard that but when I talked to him before Fleche Wallonne, he said that Liege is more important, the final is more suited for him. He also stated that he'll ride Waalse Pilj as a preparation and will see about his disposition during the race. Apparently he had the legs - 5th place speaks for itself. So I just hope he stays cool and will be looking for an opportunity on Sunday.