I have a dream that one day (...)!

I have such a dream! A dream about a cycling race in the city center. The best big city ... ba! Capital! In the middle of it, near the old town, between historic tenement houses.

A dream about fans who tear their throats, cheering on the players. Supporters, who with the accessories make noise bigger than the surrounding demonstrations at the presidential palace. Those who came there for this event, and do not stand by the route, because they would like to cross the road, but they can not.

A dream to be able to start in such a race. Fight for leading places like Poles on cycling classics and Grand Tour.

A dream to face my friends there. Colleagues who, despite being seen as competitors, are still good friends.

It is a dream of those of Martin Luther King. Seemingly unreal, and if someone would tell me something like that a few years ago, I would think that he's crazy. Today we all know that it is possible.

Digression: Królak's memorial that everyone can see.

I will not go into the details of Królak's Memorial. I described them last year here. During this year, nothing has changed in principle (except my disposition). Let me just remind you that this is a criterion played in the center of Warsaw on short loops, looking like this: start straight, sharp left, sharp left, sharp left, long straight with wind in the fire, sharp left, sharp left, sharp right, downhill snail with ankle that kills the wrists, a sharp left, a sharp left, a stiff ramp with an ankle that breaks teeth, sharp left, two sharp right and long straight to the finish.

It's amazing, right? Assuming that each sharp left was at right angles, painting this route would require a moment's thought, because the description sounds disturbingly similar to the way on the track.

End of digression, we go back to a wet dream

The Królak memorial is a dream come true for an amateur cyclist. There is an interesting route with a driveway in a city where there are no ramps, very fast corners, loops, crowd of people and cheering like at a local football match. On the children's race, the mass of competitors is visible to the horizon, in MTB (which is pressed here on the basis of: I do not want to but I have to) same. If not for the fact that the race once again interferes with ŻTC, which for unknown reasons organizes the Battle of Góra Kalwaria on exactly the same daythere would be even more people (in 2015 there were 71 people in my cat. 69 years ago, including 63)

In my opinion, Królak's Memorial is the best cycling event that can be seen in this country. Still boring, but still the best ;-) At least until Pro Tour will not repeat Gliczarow 5 times.

* note, the following text does not apply to the first 10, in which I wanted to be analyzing the results from previous years, but I did not succeed - because to ride at high intensity, you have to ride at high intensity ... and it hurts and hurts.

The crowd cheers and then I enter! All white!

So we have fans, we have a tour and in the middle of it all you are! You, with your pampered bike, lighter than a water seal. You see yourself rushing up into Bednarska, avoiding all those who were born less capable. At the end of the tour, a girl takes off her shirt to wave you, which throws you in your pants. Splendor and glory will remain with you forever. You remember that Robert Lewandowski is also an athlete and earns a minimum of a dozen or so million euros a year. You start to wonder if you will be able to remain with yourself with colossal earnings.

Then comes the second lap and you know everything. The only thing you do not know is where the head is. T-shirt removed by the girl, can at most serve to wipe away your tears, and the pants probably flew from a nearby hospice, in which everyone is angry at the noise under the windows. You hear cheering on Bednarska, but you have no idea who it is. It's as if you put a fly into the mixer, started it and asked who it sees outside. Only instead of the fruit cocktail is a cocktail of sweat, tears and isotonic. You are like a bat with echolocation, dark in front of your eyes, but you try to drive in such a way as to keep an equal distance from the noise of spectators in both ears. With each subsequent lap is more and more everything, because you hear earlier the announcer who is just passing the finish line. The heart rate reaches the values ​​that you saw last time while running for good in November. They hurt places that normally do not hurt.

Two hours after the race, you dream to repeat it as soon as possible. Everyone, except one person, dreams about it. Królak leaves such a feeling of insufficiency, the feeling that it was possible to go much better. Chasing is part of this hobby, losing is basically an inherent or even permanent component for 95% of people. The basis is to see the positives: if someone asks me about the worst race this year, I will not have any problems with the choice. It was this one. But that does not matter, it was worth it. Fun is ahead and if I could, I would go again today.

The pain is strong but stable

The fans look at you, you look down and try not to catch eye contact. You look like you're counting your ankle. Like this guy who marched on a marathon and has to go ... or the one who is just putting a bike on Pitoniówka during TRR or Gliczarów on TdPA. How walk of shame made by Cersei, only people, instead of spit, cheer you on, because even the worst rider is an outstanding sportsman. Such cheering consolation. At the finish line your girlfriend will tell you that you were the bravest and you are proud of yourself.

My no, we live in a relationship full of sincerity. Panda says I may be a loser, but that does not bother her. Then he will add that it was a very nice ride, but the headliner is a different league. Well, that for next year will certainly be better, because how could it be worse. I appreciate this honesty. I look like other girls lie to their boys straight in the face, saying how strong they are. Because if you can fight on Rondo, you can not get there on a more selective route on the sneaker or win by accident.

The elite is riding in the evening - they remind us again that their cycling is a different sport than amateur cycling. They drive like the same, but somehow different. Smoother, faster, little, there are some more conspicuous in construction. Despite this, half of them will get a shot and will not get there. This is a much better result than last year. It's good that although bikes are worse, heavier and uglier.

Because when it comes to bicycles: if you did not start in the Memorial for another year in a row, because it was a waste of your equipment, I will tell you something. After inserting a minimum of 25mm tires and a soft wrapper, Your bike can not do muchonly rubber. Bikes are not really made of plastic and much more damage is usually done by the hole not shown in the peloton. Even accidents, which were a few this year (and in previous years I have not seen any) are more like those at traffic lights, when we forget to get out of the pedal.

Internet for a lick will do everything

Do not believe people who write on the internet. They are inventing facts, then denying them by writing the obvious. If the cycling king of socks writes to you that pursuing in Warsaw is a burner, proving something else, spending on equipment instead of quitting everything and going to the Bieszczady Mountains ... maybe there is something to it, but a grain of sand in the endless desert. I do not know what is meant to create such a vision of us, Warsaw cyclists, but if someone believes in it, I think it is hurtful.

At most races, the atmosphere is excellent and everyone is a good friend. In one minute we can be called, but an hour or three later we drink a cola under the shop. Chasing is fun. The same as playing the branches under the block at the age of 7, how to go to squash together with a friend from work, arrange an evening badminton, or play Super Farmer with his girlfriend. Is I doing it when playing Super Farmer in order to prove to her that I'm better? Okay, that's a bad example, but it's not like that. People compete because the competition is fun and interesting. When we were little, we also called ourselves in the yard - emotions make theirs.

Fast cycling is also great. Ba, most of the contestants are reconciled to the fact that they will lose, but still play well. Of course, there is always a lack of satisfaction in the head, but anyway, the sum of positive emotions exceeds the negative ones. The Królak memorial is a brilliant excuse for fast driving. Turns at right angles overcome at over 40km / h and the awareness that the ambulance will be with you within 40 seconds if something goes wrong. It's like a crossroads of haratania in branches under an beater in an adult version with a visit to a rollercoaster.

Why is a man standing by the route? Because he wants to cross the street.

Perhaps people stand by the route only because they can not avoid it and move on. In fact, finding yourself on the wrong side of the fence can cause some problems for the walkers. Perhaps real fans are only those who start earlier or later and their families. It does not matter. I have not seen such crowds as during the children's races and the MTB race for a long time. It is evidently potential for their passage one day to the road section. Such doping as in Bednarska can be found only on the Tour de Pologne, and so interesting (to watch) the route ... I do not know where. Królak's memorial is a cycling holiday. You have to be on it. With a bicycle or without a bicycle, but you have to.

My movie on a channel that no one subscribes to (for what?):