Note, I'm guessing about tea leaves

In companies providing IT services, there are over 140 thousand employees in Poland. people (ABSL.pl respect from last year). He probably goes on a bike with 20% of them, because the IT industry is not known for its physical abilities. That means we win football, basketball and even boxing cups, but mainly with the mouse, keyboard and pad. Outside, the sun is shining and you can not see anything on the monitor, so it's better to avoid such conditions. Of these 20% more ambitious he probably drives another 20%, which leaves just over 5,500 people. The highway probably uses some 25%, or 1375. Probably every fourth is driving, that is 343. Half of them is in July on vacation.

There are 172, part of which did not sign up for Serock a month earlier, which means that the fee of PLN 120 (some PLN 1.5 per minute, over PLN 2.2 per kilometer) seemed exaggerated, and some simply did not know about the event, either far. In the end, 41 people remain.

These 41, then should be divided into 5 age categories for men and one for women (because women regardless of age are after all just as fast, in contrast to men). In my, the most numerous categories are 15 masters, some probably end up in a ditch, some catch a defect, with 4 probably weak. There are six left - as many as were on the list when I signed up. And I was saving myself in the last possible moment ... Does it change something? In total, not much. It does not matter if you race against a thousand people or 40 - racing is similar, with the difference that the chance of an accident is smaller. Anyway, I assume that the eagle shirt will fight max. several people.

Almost all of us are masters.

They are Road Championships of Poland, Mountain (also road) Polish Championships, Polish Championships on the track (probably a billion of competition), Polish Championships for Amateurs, Masters, Cyclosphere, Elite, MTB Championships (probably in XC, marathon and a thousand other competitors) , Pharmaceutical Championships, Journalists, IT and a few other disciplines (probably separated between the road and MTB), Cross Country Championships, MP in the Street Criterium and probably some others who I do not know about, and all these are divided into age categories (some even counted as 5 years) and then into sexual categories. In addition, all these competitions on small or strange bikes: DH, BMX, 4x, some Uphillas, etc. In the same Serock described here, 27 champions were selected! Twenty-seven.

Perhaps this, together with a convenient location for the residents of the largest city in Poland, explains the record turnout, which nobody expected. Apparently more than 550 people. Fortunately, it was divided into several (raids?) Various races. The streets were running by cyclists from 9am to late afternoon.

If there are 550 players, and 27 are champions, it means that there may be 81 people on the box, which is one in seven, and if the categories were evenly distributed in terms of attendance, every second person would be in the top ten.

You hear many voices that it's meaningless. The master should be one. Well, in my opinion - no! This is a step in a great direction. A step towards the end, one fine day, to stop dividing the peloton into age categoriesand start other divisions - more just. This is a step towards introducing a system where everyone has a chance to win their race without counting on a miracle. For the division in which you win the races lower category, you are promoted to a higher one. Because of course it's great to race with the better ones, but it's also nice to have any chance to fight.

Interestingly, on that day almost none of the favorites won. Ba, almost none of them even stood on the box ...

Your request is advertised

The competition office is such an IIS, but not only that someone forgot to configure the appropriate proxy and load balancer, so that the traffic will be distributed on a good day to the appropriate queues and equally, it has been put on the wrong type of machine. The server is a classic General Purpose instead of Burst Performance (i.e. a fixed number of operations instead of adapting to a short-term, very high load). People DDoSuje the application assigning addresses, and the service behaves like a security department consisting of only juniors.

I have never seen what happened in the office of the competition. Although the work of the office on Saturday extended to the hours of the night, there were people who waited more than 2 hours. The color added is the fact that the office is in the building, upstairs. If you came by bicycle, you must leave it outside and pray. On Sunday morning, practically to the very start. I appear on the spot more than an hour before my start. In front of me there are 30-40 people in the queue. Half with some additional problem - that 20 PLN is missing for bails, that there is no proof of payment that there is something. The ladies do what they can, but in spite of everything, the quality is more like a more tired dean's office than an ultra-fast cashier in Biedronka. I got a little bit off, run a bit, numbered the number, losing all the aero-benefits, at the starting line I am reporting with some 6-minute supply. Let's move.

We, ordinary people and they - horses

I admit honestly, I would rather go in a licensed race. Apparently, there were even no problems with making the paper for the last minute - people say it took even a day. I did not consider the amateur race completely. However, the IT championships remained. I do not have to drive sensible two races, so I choose the latter. In the footer on the blog, I have written that I work with computers, it obliges a little ...

Masters race (or license) has two main advantages - firstly, it is colossally heavily planted. Polish record holders, multiple champions of the country, winner of the Tour de Pologne, winner of the Tour de Serbie stage race, former professionals and world champions are on the start lists. The route is flat, it gives you the chance to keep up with them. It's nice to know that it can be reached in one group with such horses.

Second route - licenses drive 136km, which look much more sensible than 54km amateurs. These 54km look a bit like the famous 30km very large, serious, respected and heavy and super-popular Tour de Pologne Amatorów.

Route: _____ / \ /

Short races are boring, dangerous .... and short. Morning races took place downpour. Similar to last year's altogether, only a hail rain met us instead of hail, and the lack of gusty wind made no one enter the ditch on the straight road.

Unlike amateurs, there are few of us. I did not note any dangerous situations (except for a few holes that attacked from hiding, hiding in puddles). I do not know how difficult it is to paint these dozen or so holes on the asphalt, but probably very - because the organizers did not do it. Similarly, if they did not mark the route in any other way, the cars would know that there is a race on the streets. Because in some places the police secured traffic, but apparently in many places the drivers were at least surprised.

The route itself is moderate - a bit simple, some light turns, a few sharper. The end is a driveway (driveway in the mazowieckie context) under the viaduct, a 90-degree turn and a very long straight divided into sections: exit, roundabout, uphill. The climbs at the finish line are cool, which is always confirmed by the race in Sobótka. Here we have a view of over a kilometer ahead and a chance to fully control the situation.

We're going, nothing is happening

I would like to write something interesting about the IT race, but nothing really happened. In other groups, she got a little nervous because of the number of participants and a small amount of maneuver on such a short route - but it was calm with us. We rode in heavy rain, in water to the ankles. We traveled through corners like a group of serious gentlemen, where the children are waiting for their meals at home - without the risk of unnecessary risk. Moderate pace with light bursts. From time to time, someone tries to jump, but it has not been possible for anyone over a distance of more than 100 meters throughout the race.

Short races have their own rules - if you do not have a team with whom you work, you will not leave. Here it is similar, each attack is immediately deleted and the rate decreases.

The strategy is simple: you have to stick to the front. In this weather, tippers are normal, and I am sure that this would be the perfect moment to attack many people. From time to time, some offensive action, because maybe it will work, sometimes a light welding, sometimes counting on the fact that it spoczawa at the front.

The most important is to experience the last corner. I beat him somewhere in the middle of the group, a bit too much behind. At the last straight I leave a few dozen meters behind the beginning of our peloton. I'm starting to drive my way forward with anyone who decides to finish too early.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, hill, line, end

There was a heroic, one-man attack on the front. Nobody thinks that it will reach the finish line ... after a while we already know that unfortunately we will have to fight for second place. This is the moment when two Maciek sit on their shoulders: one says "but no, no, no," while the other says that "you have to go now to the corpse". I am waiting as much as I can and I am driving the first one about 200 meters before the finish line (so the second one, although the winner is fortunately from another age category). I know it is too early. I do not know what is happening behind me, but a friend appears next to me - Piotrek. He is already riding half a circle in front of me. I'm losing about half a meter on the line. I'm the runner up for the second year in a row.

In the accounts and photos, I should now describe why I lost, what did not work out, what mistakes I made, draw conclusions and justify myself. At least 90% of entries always look like that. For me, the reason is simple: I was a weaker rider on the line and I lost it in full deservedness. Piotrek ran the race wisely and was faster on the straight. The winner of the M2 and open (the category he does not have), despite the fact that he bit a bit during the race, also deserved his courageous jump.

Half a meter seems to be a funny distance when you look to the side. From a cyclist's perspective, half a meter is a difference as big as the difference between the first and the second place. In the photos at home, I notice that the 4-photo-finish was the second behind us.

Then just pea soup ... issued from 14 (the race ends at 10.30).

While reviewing the winners in the remaining races, especially those licensed, one trivia tosses in the eye: almost all of the tipsters were disappointed. Contrary to the prediction, not many peleton was also caught. I was sure that the races would look like Rondo Babka (which takes place nearby) when people come to them, with the power of a vacuum cleaner. On the 7th kilometer they will say goodbye to the group, go their own way, work bravely on the changes and the last round will start to enchant and give away places, because the difference will be impossible to make up for.

Cycling #nikogo

Polish Championship in Serock, from the point of view of a road cyclist, such as most of us are, one of the most important events in the season. Every day on the Internet I see voices of indignation that cycling is under-funded, that footballers earn too much, that the effort put into training is disproportionate to profits. It's possible, but the answer appears at such events. I think that the supporters who came to look only can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In total, I'm not surprised, watching the peloton every 10-15 minutes for 7 seconds is not exciting.

On Tuesday (i.e. probably in the past), one of the most well-known cycling races begins: 60. Race around Mazowsze - there will also be no fans there. A week and a half later is Królak's Memorial. Here, the streets will be full of people and thanks to photos we will again believe that cycling is experiencing a second youth and thanks to the successes of Polish cyclists, people are interested. However, no one will notice that a similar piston is also there when the race is gone.

Cycling is unfortunately a sport for practicing, not watching ...

Serock shows that it is possible

You can write a litany about the mistakes of the party, but the end-end was very good. Organizing so many races in one day is no mean feat. Huge attendance, quick license issuance, convenient location along with the growing popularity of road cycling (among competitors, not fans) made it a good day.

I would forget about the most important!

Apart from quite a big cup, I also got two USB plugs and a compression ball. Throughout the year, I can now watch the recorded race with the wind blowing in my face and squeezing the ball as a frustration;)