The Beskid loop - we spend the 4th year in a row beginning of July in Wisła. Someone might say that it makes no sense to ride the same loop in the same mountains, but I remind you that I live in Warsaw. For us, Mazovian cyclists, a trip to Gassy through Gołkowska St. instead of Powsińska is already a substitute for madness and she catches herself for the exploration of virgin lands. The race in the Beskidy Mountains is a new experience for me every year: I went there twice for the pro loops, which consisted of 86 km after the deadly loops (here is the link to the entry), and once - in a fit of insanity - a distance of 230km in the heat that beat me (link to the entry).

The Beskid loop - Two for the price of one

This year the choice was simpler. One loop traveled 1 or 2 times. According to the principle that if you pay the same for debts and short distances, it is more profitable to choose debts, we have no doubts what to do. Here the first bite appears:

It turns out that girls can only go a single loop. Because you know - girls are weaker, slower and generally you have to wait for them with decoration for 3 days. Some of them come regularly to me and half a day earlier than the last guys, but it does not matter. It would be enough to introduce a fair system which is the time limit for entering the second loop, but this probably requires additional personal and hardware outlay. We thought for a moment that maybe it is also about additional classifications, decorations, awards and so on? After all, it is hard times and you have to save money. But that's not it, because

ŻAL.PL

Well, before you a race in which several hundred people take part. The race is described as one of the heaviest in the country due to its specificity. A race that people from all over Poland come to. Time 16, just after the end of heavy rain, and not much longer than when we were beginning to regain consciousness at the top of the Szarcula Pass. There are 5 the best on the podium in terms of age, sex, open and divided into distances (of course, without women, women do not belong long distance). All in all, a lot of people, although most are repeated. The president's grip, a medal (which resembles those from running events that gets behind "defeating yourself" and reaching the finish line) and that's it. I know, amateurs do not usually count on valuable prizes, which will cover any costs of such a start. We do not start to earn or even go out to 0. BUT TO A BRIGHT ANGEL (Aniela !!!): no cup? No anything? This is embarrassment. You can complain that sometimes the cups have the size of peanut and were probably bought in Decathlon for PLN 13 for a while before the decoration, but still ... Any cup, diploma, bouquet of flowers, sheep's cheese from the stand next to it, a jar of local honey is better than nothing. Here the winners get exactly NOTHING.

As a fan I felt embarrassment. If I knew, we would drop for 5 zlotys with our buddies for the winner and the winner. Because it just falls out.

In near Maciej

The route of the Beskid Loop is evolving, but the key elements remain the same.

The Beskid loop starts from the market square in Wisła (once it started from the parking lot under the ski jump). Wisła is a very nice city: clean, tidy, expensive. The average ice cream ball costs here twice as much as in my case at work in Warsaw Powiśle in an expensive store eco. I understand that many things can be expensive, as it is the peak of the season, but ice cream is like coffee for Italians, which must cost 1 euro, or the people's rebellion begins. The first few kilometers are the honorary start behind the car. From the past, I remember it so that in the city we go all together, and just behind the reflection on the Black car slowly moves away, and the headlamp with him.

This time it is slightly different. We go to Czarne in a group. There are a total of 70 people, we will finish 56. The other 200 choose a shorter distance of 70km. The well-known climb to Zameczek begins (Castle of the President of the Republic of Poland, which is actually somewhere in the middle of this driveway - the easier one). Tuf leaves, the back stays. Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition ... at least not so soon. There are about 10 people leaving us from the front, they make watts from space. I have to choose: either to try to go with them and pray for them to slow down or drive their own way. Well, you can risk it on a flat, here I will still have 5 hours of fighting in the mountains - I do not want to risk it. Behind us is left of 50 people, we know well that places at the finish with the accuracy of ~ 5 items have just been given - you can go home. But not us, we will torture these 300 minutes to show that we are the strongest in this group. We lose 40 seconds to the top on the 800 steepest meters - we have been trampled. We're traveling in a dozen or so.

But it hurts a lot!

One of the best-known conventions of the race begins: Stecówka DH. Narrow, winding, fast, with sand on curves and transverse gutters set at an angle so that you can fall into a wheel with a width of 23mm. This year the outflows are better, they do not bother as it used to be. We all notice it. I do not know if it's technology: thicker rubbers, better frames, or just someone improved them. 4 years ago I broke the GoPro handle attached to the steering wheel. At the congress, as usual, I loose contact with the group, but they reach me colleagues from the estate (in the sense of the city, because in principle, on all starts, half people know each other well, and the other half saw somewhere) and in the third we catch the rest.

Next is hell, the place where last night I made a night in the middle of the day and scored withdraws: Koczy Castle. Apparently only 5.5 kilometers with an average of 4%, probably the most steep 1300 meters, only 7%, but a few moments seem vertical. We lose another minute there - the leading group in front of us shoots KOM. A photographer awaits at the top - we get so-called pictures of crying, which can be seen in the future, when the idea of ​​repeating the Loop comes back to us. Although we know well that it does not work like that. We are abnormal and in 11 months we will see your picture with a face like after 3 kebabs with a super spicy and we will say: o fak, but it was hard, we probably died, never again. We have to repeat this!

The day I promised myself a shield.

Koczy Castle has one more characteristic feature: exit. The bravest ones exceed 100km / h here. Long (although not as fast as it seems) simple and very large inclination (several percent). On the second lap I get infamous shimmy here. It's such a funny event that you're driving straight ahead, and the steering wheel gets vibrated and starts to get harder and harder until the asphalt stops it. It started at 92.2km / h. I had only to warn the guest behind me that there would be a problem and you had to choose: either a quick reminder of online advice from anonymous people about what to do, or Our father. The knee touched the upper tube, the handlebar was loosened, the vibrations gave way and the whole pair braked to release and have a moment to check if the pampers are very dirty from the inside. Eventually, I somehow survived, others too. I caught the group and several dozen kilometers down (with light jumps) we drove together.

The Beskid loop is played by the open traffic, it bothers slightly, but only on the 10-kilometer fragment from Milówka to S1. In other places the cars are practically not seen or there is a large roadside. We are ahead of the car left, right, top, bottom, belts, people, after all. We are probably the most numerous group, so a motorcycle with a bodyguard goes with us. This is the best motorcycle ever - I think that 5 of such guests would replace the entire column. I could write something about pavements, speeds, etc., but it would be illegal if it was going so, so it was not ;-). The guest at the buffets stands to help with the administration of water. She takes the bottle to her backpack and distributes it while driving, and the peloton passes them on. I do not often ride in such a friendly group.

In the mountains you drive yours in the peloton peloton

Then there is the biggest driveway of the day, for the first time - Salmopol. 10 kilometers with an average of 4. We lose another 2.5 minutes to the top. Which is a bit funny, because at the beginning someone is shouting to us that we already have an 8-minute loss. This is a chasm. If you think that 8 minutes is not enough, it means that you are standing on the right side of the door to the only bathroom in the area. I have a very good way on the driveway - I give a few kilometers change. I impose my pace that goes a little way beyond comfort and keep it that way. Nobody will try to overtake me, and I drive my way, without tearing. I drive up to the top, go down the last one. I lose about 30-40 seconds at the exit to my group, that's the master of the steering wheel. It costs a little to overtake her, but before the end of the second drive up to Zameczek, I succeed. It is also a place where the first people start to fall from the group. He leaves us from 10-12. Then, on a long straight line, we catch two more.

Again a crazy exit from Szarcula, again a hellishly difficult driveway to Koczy Castle. We remind ourselves that in a week is Tatra Road Race. This means that we will return home on Sunday evening, we will sleep on Monday, on Tuesday we will wash clothes and bicycles, pack on Wednesday, and leave again on Thursday. For the first time in my head there is the idea that it was great in the winter. The thought of TRR hurts us in the head, but for unknown reasons we will go on it anyway, and even more unknown, we will like it. 

Legs are needed, the saddle is not necessarily

In the group, ~ 12 people all the time. After flat we go smoothly, my legs burn, I do not know why. This year is probably not a racing year. They should not hurt. I realize that during the entire race I did not have a greater shortness of breath, and only my legs stopped me. Brats against me! Next week I will buy new socks for them, maybe they will take pity and give me lungs.

At several kilometers before Salmopol, the pace sits. We're going like grandfathers. Maybe if we knew that we were very close to the group in front of us, which would be absorbed by the 10th place, someone would speed up. In such a large group it was possible to do without a problem. However, we have no radio, no one knows the differences. Or maybe it is simply lack of strength or everyone is saving for the last mountains.

As it usually happens in the times of releasing - misfortunes appear. Before that I can see only two tippers - one at 15km / h in the driveway, when someone licked the wheel and at 5km / h when the chain was fired. A view of the person who is going with the cadence 40 and suddenly, unexpectedly, the cadence increases to 100, and the bike stays in place - priceless.

In Szczyrk unhappiness happens to us. Someone from the front gets up from the saddle and throws the bike slightly backwards. Someone behind him slightly brakes, I am a little more inhibited, Wojtek, who is following me, does not make it and goes into my back wheel. I hear only a characteristic sound coming from the noise generated by asphalt grinding on asphalt. The magic method, however, ceases and goes unscathed. It seems to us, because a bit of a late fall out of his saddle ... Despite trying to replace it with anything - it fails. In the end Wojtek reaches almost 30km without a saddle, at the exit from Salmopol he bypasses me and does not give a downward difference to the end. I can only comment on this with a smile: O_o

Astrologers announce a year of trips - the population of tourists is increasing!

At Salmopol I again impose my pace, the group is completely torn. Two people disappear from the front, the rest disappears from the back. I am defeating the congress even slower than before, because it's wet somehow. We did not notice the clear rain, but Panda mentioned something about a painful hail. The last climb to Zameczek is a terrible grandfather and fight for individual places somewhere far ahead and behind. I'm driving alone. I am checking in 8th in the 16th open category. I am satisfied with the result, I gave everything and I am empty. A better place was only achieved by the more efficient work of the group, but who could have known ... If in the future you support the amateur riders, it is much more important to give the time difference to the next group, than Come on! Come on! ... although I do not know - some people probably do not want to hear it.

Nobody can convince us that black is black and bad is bad

The Beskid loop remains high in our ranking. Maybe it's a very nice route. Maybe for a long distance, not often seen at major events. Maybe just a habit.

The sad thing is that the Beskid Loop classifies the inclined plane. Lack of long distance for women, open movement, zero prizes, no PRO loop, which seems to me more cool for typical chasers. Like details, because the route compensates for everything, but it hurts.

Such a curiosity at the end: the time of the winner of one loop was slower than the time of the fourth long distance player in the same place.