Poland, what happened between yesterday and today?!
The morning in Zakopane got off to a good enough start. The kids did their mini race and seemed to have a ball.
It looked like there would be plenty of support for the riders and there was lots of excitement about visiting the sign on podium.
Sure, the weather was not good. Overcast with the odd rain shower for a few minutes. And traffic was terrible. It took me 3 hours to reach this mountain town instead of the usual 90ish minutes (so I'm told). But there was a good sized crowd and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.
What was not good, however, was organization. I kept looking at my watch in confusion. Sign on, according to the race website, was due to begin at 12:20 but the awards for the kids' race had started very late and were very disorganized, so the podium was unavailable to the riders.
Timofey Kritskiy rolled up to the podium and circled for a few moments. His inner monologue was plain on his face, “Uh, isn't this where I'm supposed to sign on? Didn't sign on start 5 minutes ago? Who are all those people on the podium? And why are there so many people wandering around on the street?” The big Russian was turned back.
Eventually, the kids and families were cleared off the stage, although they then lingered aimlessly on the road.
The stage was finally ready, complete with podium girls, the official UCI sign on pages, and they even roped off the lingerers for good measure.
Sporting the pink jersey, Mateusz Taciak and his teammates rolled up to the podium…and it was dead silent save for the emcee droning on. Not one person cheered and there was just the lightest of applause for the biggest Polish team. Not one person.
I was pretty taken aback at the total lack of reaction. What happened to those guys with the Maciej Paterski flags?! I really wanted to cheer for him but you could hear a pin drop so I withheld my enthusiasm, telling myself the crowd was still warming up.
People were getting autographs, but it was just the people at the foot of the podium (I was on the opposite side of the road) and it was more of an assembly line than anything else. The spectators (I hesitate to say “fans”) just stuck their papers out and the riders duly signed, moving down the row to return to their bikes. It didn't look to me like anyone was talking or thanking the riders which didn't sit well with me.
Tired of buttoning my lip, when Sergey Firsanov of RusVelo came within an arm's reach of me, I said his name slightly louder than my usual indoor voice, and he happily circled back to sign for me. That turned out to be my one and only autograph all day! Everyone stared at me. Eeeeeveryone. I felt a bit awkward but that's ok, not the first time I've been the lone eager fan at a race.
A minute or two later, his teammate Sergey Lagutin signed on. Lagutin was one of the riders I was most excited to see at Tour de Pologne. A Russian born in Uzbekistan, I first met him at the Tour de France last year where we realized that I could speak Uzbek but he couldn't. Since then I've been a fan of his and now that he rides for RusVelo, it's much harder to find races the team has been invited to, so this was probably the only race I'll catch him in all year. I cheered, “Go Sergey!” and he recognized me and flashed a big grin, which thrilled me, but did nothing to endear me to my neighbors. Now, I'm happy to be the only person cheering, but even I have my limits. I was pretty surprised and disappointed given the festive atmosphere at yesterday's arrival to see how dour the mood today was. That was the last straw for me, realizing the weird looks I was getting, so I made for the buses.
Below: Russians Alexander Rybakov and Ilnur Zakarin.
Trek teammates Julian Arredondo and Fumi Beppu.
Robert Gesink stopped for an interview.
Every time I looked towards Movistar, one of the Izagirre brothers, Gorka and Spanish champion Ion respectively, was digging around in the back of the team car.
The biggest crowd of the day was at the Tinkoff Saxo bus waiting for Poland's Rafal Majka, double stage winner and King of the Mountains at this year's Tour de France.
With the weather changing every few minutes, some of the RusVelo riders hung out and avoided the rain under the umbrella at a cafe.
Andrey Amador. I'm not sure what this face meant.
The riders were herded into a space less than a lane's width to make room for the cars to pass.
With a summit finish, today would just be about surviving for sprinters Michael Matthews and Tyler Farrar.
The last of the Orica riders set off for the start line but because they were actually coming from the course itself…
…Cameron Meyer concluded the easiest thing would be to wait for the peloton to reach him and then join in.
Leaders' jerseys in the front.
Just a couple of hundred meters into the race and already Tomasz Marczynski and Arredondo were signaling for support from their team cars.
Bringing up the rear, Norway's Lars Petter Nordhaug.
So, Poland, I do hope that some of the energy and excitement that was in such abundance yesterday will be on display tomorrow!
Today's one and only signature came from 203 Sergey Firsanov.
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