Race Around Poland 2025 (2) Race Day: Disaster started before the race. …
Race Around Poland 2025 (2) Race Day: Disaster started before the race. Besides the lights and power banks I was planning to carry a charger for Europe and charging unit for the SRAM AXS batteries. And … somehow at hotel I lost some of the AXS batteries and the charging unit. Why Disaster? Very simple: Ideal was to keep charging derailleur batteries at every time station for a few minutes. My issue is the riding technique that makes me shift a lot specifically on rear cassette. Since I had a limited number of batteries, I had to shift much less than I normally would to keep enough batterie power for the climbing in the mountains in Southern Poland. That slowed me down a lot and limited me shifting in the mountains. But … I thought this is a good challenge and I just must stay focused. My strategy went from a good result to simply stay focused and use the race as a training race so I learn the layout and challenges for possibly 2026 race again. Went on the first short 5-6 mile to the official race start location. Bike felt good and weather was great. Once started I enjoyed the first section going to TS1. It was a cool ride and start getting a good feeling specifically with limited shifting. Kept an eye on battery levels of the shifter batteries. TS1 I did not take too long for stopping. Nothing to be charged and since I am vegan I had to eat my own supply of food. So, all cool and moved on after 10 minutes. Second section was a bit more challenging. The first part of it was like the first section but towards the end the climbing started. Now I thought I would get a good feel of how the climbing would be. But … this was an easy part only .Finished the second TS as scheduled with some initial climbs in my legs. The stop was short again … kept moving on for TS3. A bit more climbing at third section. I start feeling that this is going to be a tough ride in the mountains. I start having a bit of a power nap at TS3. This helped a lot and moved on to TS4. TS4 section was split on the racetrack into TS4-1 and TS4-2. I got tuned in ok and was happy with the ride. However about 11 miles before TS4-1 a real disaster struck me. The road was great and new. However, no bike lane or shoulder. A truck was not patient behind me. The driver tried to pass me and when next to me he had incoming traffic running out of space and … kicked me off the road. He moved right into me and pushed me onto the sidewalk. I believe I was a bit over 20 mph at that time. Sliding on the road for a bit and nope … none of the cars behind the truck nor the truck stopped to help. It took me a bit, and I decided to keep going. Had issues with knee, hip, elbow and shoulder as well as my right hand. I was able to manage the pain and had to make it to TS4-2 so I could get some bandage to cover the wounds enough to avoid any infection. Had great help at every time station for that and admittedly very happy with the support of the volunteers at that race. … More in next part of the report
