We join a race already in progress: the Tour of Poland! Or as it's officially know, the Tour de Pologne. I travelled to Katowice today to catch the arrival of the longest stage.
There was a huge queue of kids with bikes near the finish line this morning…
…and an unexpected amount of Nutella propaganda…
…which of course meant that Nutella was sponsoring a short race for local kids.
About 200 kids aged 7-8 probably sat on the finish line, ready to do a 2 kilometer lap, but not before some of the Nutella people preformed a dance to a Shakira song. The dance was somewhere between mildly to very inappropriate given the age group sitting in front of them.
Counting down from 3, the kids were off! Sort of. There were lots of near misses as kids slammed on their pedals only to realize they were in a gear more suitable for the Alps and generally wabbled their way forward.
Meanwhile, I couldn't help but admire the flashy track suit worn by the emcee.
Two other age groups set off on their own mini races, each one getting the same Nutella/Shakira dance as half the kids in the front row preformed the sign of the cross.
The near misses from earlier turned into full on crashes at the finish line as the younger kids didn't fully understand why it was important that they didn't stop 6 meters after crossing the line while 150 of their peers barreled down the finishing straight. Fortunately everyone walked/rode away with only minor damages.
I nearly got taken out myself when I didn't realize the inflatable finish line banner for the kids' race was being taken down!
And of course, this sneaky guy crawled in to nab my spot! Poor form, sir.
Deflating the banner involved basically the same requirements as deflating an air mattress: get a lot of big people to sit on it and squeeze the remaining air out.
No race is compete without free swag. Giro d'Italia organizers, take note: these are some pink hats!
I didn't understand why cows (I think they were cows) and orange/blue zebras were the at the race, but they were having a good time and it felt like a parade in no time.
The crowd was loving it and the riders hadn't even shown up yet! The peloton would complete 4 laps of a 12+ kilometer urban circuit and the fifth time over the line would produce the stage winner.
The early break had been caught by the time the riders reached Katowice and a new break composed of one rider apiece from Cannondale, Sky, and CCC Polsat Polkowice had no more than 2 minutes advantage.
The peloton.
As soon as the riders had passed the carnival picked up where it left off, this time with the race's official mascot, a bee named Paula, jointing the act.
Three laps to go and the break's lead had diminished by about 30 seconds.
Jerome Cousin of Europcar and a rider from Team Poland attempted to bridge.
Jack Bobridge led the peloton.
Back to the party!
Two laps to go and the break was now 5 strong, though the peloton was taking predictable bites from their advantage.
The peloton.
While the mascots danced in the road, this gentleman studied his book about the Tour de Pologne.
The bell lap! By my count, the peloton was about 15 seconds off.
Belkin and Sky were among the teams organizing for the anticipated bunch sprint.
The riders thundered down the road and Lotto Belisol's Jonas Van Genechten pulled off the win ahead of Astana's Jacopo Giarnieri and Giant's Luka Mezgec.
Overall race leader Petr Vakoc of OPQS was shepherded to the podium as was stage winner Van Genecheten.
Lasse Norman Hansen rode to the Garmin bus while Lars Petter Nordhaug paused for his fellow Norweigans.
The top 3 riders of the stage.
Matthias Krizek in the blue jersey of the most active rider.
Mateusz Taciak led the King of the Mountains competition.
Vakoc in yellow for another day.
Yauheni Hutarovich in the points jersey.
And rounding out the awards, crowd favorite Maciej Paterski was the highest overall placed Polish rider.
