Brevet Flood Classics '25

– Please tell me what the 2024 training season was like for you and what do you wish for 2025?
– It was a great season, I will never forget it. And what do I wish for the 2025 season? The same as in 2024.
– Be a little more specific.
– I slept a lot, played a lot of Candy Crush Saga because I like it a lot, sat on the couch a lot and stared at the wall dead inside after work.

This dialogue, which never happened (but could have), nicely illustrates my current physical condition. I don’t know if you know this, but a lot of pre-race conversations – whether they’re races, long rides, joint training sessions, or even brevers, as in this case – are preceded by conversations about lack of fitness and lack of preparation. It’s a tradition we’ve learned since school:

We gather in smaller groups and each of us says in turn how badly they didn't study and how badly they'll fail the next exam. This conversation ends, you all enter the room, grab a pen and try to write something, but you can't, because you don't even understand the questions. You look around with a blank stare, and everyone around you, as if in a trance, writes as if they were court reporters. Then you know where you are in your body and what color that part of your body is (I invite you to the entry about Uganda).

It's similar in amateur cycling. No one is in shape, and yet everyone is at the start of a 211km long brevet in the mountains. A brevet is a race, only without racing - I explain, because I've never taken part in anything like that in my life. I didn't plan it this time either. And as Mr. Zenek sang: "How it happened - I don't know". However, if I had to point out the reasons: the title said Kłodzko Valley, and RideWithGPS showed me the data in feet and miles, so I ignored it. And I've already written everything I could about the Valley: once properly and comprehensively, once on the heads, so that the blog can live. And there was one more reason: I decided that if I am able to cycle around the Basin, I do not expect anything more from my fitness. And I will only add that since returning from Lesotho (4 months ago) I have been on a bike with Baranek twice and during those rides I did not go far from Warsaw. What is more, I have not ridden in the mountains on typical road tires for… 6 years! Here I end the topic of “how unprepared I am”, although I could go on for a long time. Obligatory point checked off. Besides, the organizer is Mr. Piko, with whom I have a special bond that even he does not know about. Surprisingly often we find ourselves in places where Paweł had raced just a moment earlier… and it was completely by accident. This was the case in Morocco, Rwanda, parkour in Romania and probably other places I forgot.

My plan is simple. Stick with Wojtek, whose journey is similar to mine, and who also has Ebola (probably a writer's hyperbole). It's even a symbolic adventure, because it's been exactly 9 years since we traveled this horrible route together. Milan-San Remo. Yes, 9 years ago I wrote the same blog posts and we rode the road longer, faster and better than now. Then we rode it again, I think. The Strzelin Hills in the middle of a pandemic.

So when we meet after 5 years, on Saturday, at 7:30, before we cover 211 km and 3200 m vertically, in the Polanica-Zdrój Sports and Recreation Centre, we have a lot to talk about. The first one is: why in in the turds there is no helmet hanger at Orlen. Only then do we get to "how out of shape I am."

The driving itself doesn't stress me out too much. We're going to finish, survive, maintain our dignity, and have fun - in that order. We've already mastered driving from the back of our minds and experience. Young padawan they still use carbs and muscle – but in our case, that’s not an effective strategy. It’s a bit like telling a fool to “use your brain.” As a certain rapper once sang:

I oppose the power of the brain to the power of the muscles

Especially since my carboloading took place on Friday evening, as soon as I got out of the car in Polanica and took a deep breath, so the subject is passed. All my attention comes down to choosing trousers: shorts and legs or long ones. I think it's a technique learned from commandos (or more precisely, when we were them in kindergarten) - redirection. Instead of focusing on the difficulties of overcoming the route, I focus on the lower clothing. Just like with a headache - all you have to do is hit your finger with a hammer and the headache stops being a problem (I think, if you check - let me know). Unfortunately, riding in long trousers is a different sport for me than in short ones - the cotton disappears somewhere. However, I do many hours of thorough analysis and take long trousers. The key argument is that I won't have to wonder when to put on and when to take off trousers. Or laziness that I will have to do anything at all. I know because I had 3 pairs of gloves with me, for all weather conditions, and I know how many times I changed them. In general, the whole trip was mentally energy-saving. I only wrote to Ania that I was going, asked where and at what time I should be there by car, and the rest happened by itself. I simply followed people and did what they did. 

To better illustrate the problem of clothing in the early Polish spring, I have prepared a special, professional graphic:

I ride the same bike I always ride, everywhere, for the last 5 years. The damn Factor refuses to fall apart no matter what I do to it: Moroccan taxis, Ugandan vans, Ethiopian buses and dozens of throws of cardboard leave at most slight blemishes on it. Since it got new Dandy Horse wheels with 32mm GP5000 it has become even more irreplaceable. I am seriously disappointed with the bicycle industry. Here it is, in a version where you can't see it, but you can see the reception of our OSIR, which could just as well be the set design at Przystanek Alaska.

I have no idea what I can write about the route itself. I think I've written everything I could about the valley, and then some. This time, in keeping with the main theme, the motif of last year's flood appears, which wreaked havoc in the area. Indeed, it breaks your heart when you pass Radochów, Stronie, or Lądek, even though the area has already been more or less cleared.

At the start I meet a hundred million familiar faces that I haven't seen in person for about two hundred million years. I really like the idea of riding without any classification. It requires extraordinary precision and finding the golden mean. Where dignity doesn't end yet, but also where misery doesn't begin yet. Our group gets smaller with every kilometer - sometimes it grows a bit, but most of the time, from the area of the climb behind Złoty Stok, Wojtek and I ride alone. These 12 hours together (2 of which in motionless) allow us to analyze just two cycling adventures that we have experienced together in our lives. With each subsequent climb I also begin to believe more and more that it is indeed Ebola in his lungs, not a cold.

Of course, we eat breakfast like true professionals. I'm sitting among the ultras - they know how important proper food is. According to the latest research, sausages are essential. I would like to remind you that I take no responsibility for any sentence I write.

Do you know why, on the first dozen or maybe even dozens of kilometers of the route, not a single new hole in the asphalt has appeared in recent years? Because it has not found a place for itself. After that, it is comfortable, surprisingly comfortable even. Maybe with the exception of small breaks in the asphalt, from time to time. Currently, this asphalt is probably in the vicinity of Szczecin. Well, if I wanted to ride on perfect asphalt, I would go to Africa.

I have prepared a few jokes, and the safest one is that Kłodzko after the flood is not much different from Kłodzko before the flood. However, I think it is inappropriate to write them. The fact is, however, that apart from individual shop windows, I did not record the effects visible today. However, you also know that I treat the condition of the buildings in the valley as its advantage, not a disadvantage - of course from the point of view of a tourist. If I lived there, I would write differently.

One of the tasks on the brevet card is to do some shopping in a store between kilometer 80 and 95, i.e. in the area most affected by the flood – as part of local micro-support. We find this one, the most inconspicuous of inconspicuous stores. We go inside and we know. It is exactly the same feeling as when you enter the only store in the village in the middle of Ethiopia, all eyes are on you and you have absolutely no idea what to buy. Out of the corner of our eye we manage to find a pack of isotonic drinks. We make sure we can buy one each, but it still seems stupid. Wojtek chooses Sesame, which he will finish a few hours later, I take dust with water and sugar, i.e. halva. Even though I don't like it. However, I can't stand the pressure that grows with every second, as I stand in front of the counter and my eyes roam around the assortment. For a moment, we even telekinetically agree with Wojtek whether to take a newspaper, for example, "Kobieta" - maybe the last one. Then it turns out that we can't buy it with a card, so we let Mrs. Blik. If every customer spent as much time there as we did and bought as much as we did - the lady would have to seriously contribute to the business. But in return we get a stamp for the book from her. Yes, the store had its own stamp. I'm almost certain that we are the only participants who even got a stamp for their brevet cards in the grocery store. Suckers!

I have some moral problem with taking pictures after natural disasters. Like taking pictures of people in African mud huts… and I hope I didn’t offend anyone at this point. I think the line between poverty tourism or showing misfortune and documenting reality is very thin. Maybe it depends on the context.

In this case, its purpose is to show the destruction, and at the same time to warmly encourage people to visit the area by making them aware that from a tourist's point of view, there are no more problems here and it's worth it. Because it's worth it, the valley is always worth it. Especially since, despite the enormity of the destruction, it's not as bad as I imagined.

Then we ride for a very long time and nothing happens. Sometimes up, sometimes down. There are still skiers on Czarna Góra. The climb to Jodłów is as usual difficult. We have a lot of time to contemplate this climb. We know very well that Piko added it just to kill Wojtek. This climb in the middle of the forest, leading to the start of very cool singles, has no other justification. On the other hand, it would be hard to talk about circling the valley if it weren't for him. It would probably be hard for us to visit the life-saving Żabka in Międzylesie, where you can buy a hotdog the color of burnt (a feature, not a bug).

Then a few turns on the climb and at sunset we report to the Wild Orlice Valley – a wonderful place, although not necessarily on that day and at that time. The temperature drops by about 10 degrees and does not intend to stop falling any further. We have about 15 kilometres to the climb to Jagodna/Spalona. I am riding in a sweatshirt and vest, and in my fanny pack on the steering wheel I have a warm flutter. I am too lazy to change, and at the same time too smart to get dressed before the climb – so I ride and slowly freeze. Well, these 15 kilometres take much longer than I expected. The explanation for this is very simple and Einstein wrote about it in his theory of relativity. Not only does temperature affect the passage of time, but speed does too – especially ours. It is known that the faster, the slower. Therefore, one minute of our ride in the cold is two minutes for observers outside the system.

For example, those sitting in wooden tubs filled with warm water and looking at us with a gaze that I can't define. In such situations, I have to distort my perception of the world a bit in my head to get rid of the urge to "slap me in the face, I can." So I imagine that it's the Czechs living on the other side of the Orlice River (because that's where the Czech Republic is) who are making broth from a Pole and slowly heating the water. By one of the tubs, some strong disco beat is playing from a loudspeaker. We wonder what drives a man who chooses to spend the night in the Wild Orlice Valley to soak in water with a view of the mountains, accompanied by loud chopping. We don't find the answer. But that doesn't matter, because we also don't find the answer to the question that accompanies us a moment later. What are two guys who hardly ever ride a bike doing on the Spalona Pass, in the middle of the night, with 200 kilometers in their legs, and why are they happy faces. Generally, during such rides, many questions arise and few answers. The first one appeared already around 6:00, when my eyelids went up and a forest of… bicycles appeared before my eyes. It sounded: why don’t we go for a walk in the mountains like people?

In addition, the sight of people passing us on bikes in shorts doesn't help, especially when the thermometer shows 3 degrees and there's snow on the side of the road. I change a kilometer before the start of the climb, because I can't handle it anymore - like a complete idiot. I also change my hat to a winter one, because yes, I have two with me!

We had great expectations of the Jagodna Shelter – especially culinary ones. I will only add that Jagodna has a special place in my heart, because it was there that our dog Racuch got his name. In honor of the famous pancakes, of course.

We can't abandon our flow, though. There's a good chance that if we were sitting in the warmth, on a bench, with a plate full of pancakes, we would have too much time to objectively analyze our situation and question the meaning of everything. We get in, get a stamp and start a 10-kilometer descent, during which there are two goals: not to freeze and not to kill ourselves on the bend. The latter would probably be a bit easier if I took a normal lamp, not a position lamp. We have a little over 20 kilometers to go until the finish line. I feel exceptionally good. At least in the places where I feel good. There are a disturbing number of places where I don't feel good at all. Strategically, from time to time, we even pee by the road to make sure everything is OK. Below is a photo of Wojtek, greeting his past self. Probably with congratulations on good and sensible decisions in life.

At the entrance to Polanica we stop at Delikatesy Centrum to receive our equivalent of a cup for being brave cyclists. In Wojtek's case, these are cigarettes, which he hasn't smoked for 2 years. At that time, he doesn't know that he won't smoke these either, or at least not by inhaling, because hours of hyperventilation won't allow it. My cup is a bit further away and is called Kebab Maharaja. However, my companion scares me with a proctologist and I pass on receiving the prize, which I regret to this day. Interestingly, I let myself be intimidated by a proctologist by a man who has just bought cigarettes.
I decide to make up for it by visiting Mr. Yosuf and his kebab shop the next day in Warsaw, in front of his house. I had been arming myself for this moment for many months, since it was created. However, it turned out that I did not make it in time. All trace of it disappeared.

The next day I go to the office because we have free food to celebrate the beginning of spring. From early morning until 1:00 PM the company's stocks are falling - does my hunger have anything to do with it? Definitely not. We all experience it post-adventure shock. If there is an opposite of cycling at night through the Lower Silesian passes, it is travelling by tram in Warsaw during rush hour. As he used to say przemekzawada.com describing car rallies: "Everything is hitting you."

Photos

Below are some photos from the route to encourage you to visit the region:

Artistic epilogue.

My friend Wojtek takes pictures. He often answers my stupid questions. I usually ask him "what's the point of this camera < >”, he then explains to me why Fuji is the best. I really like it because I have a Fuji myself, even though 5 years ago, inside, in Maciek, I laughed at him for riding a bike with a fixed lens instead of having something small with a zoom. Wojtek knows his stuff because he has been taking pictures longer than I have been riding a bike. That is why I really appreciate the artistry of the only photo he took on this trip. It may break all the rules at first glance, but I decided to make you aware of how much you do not see the hidden meaning in it. Just like with painters who throw a brush at the wall, or artists who stick a banana to the wall. So put on an expensive dressing gown, grab a glass of Château de Chasselas and I invite you to enjoy real art:

A Moment of Eternity

This photograph, although at first glance it may seem ordinary, conceals a depth of meaning and symbolism that make it a timeless work. However, when we look deeper, we discover a multi-layered narrative that speaks to us with timeless power. It is not just an image, but an allegory of the human journey through life, rooted in the dialogue between nature, spirituality and movement.

The photo shows a man in motion – a cyclist – in the context of the surrounding nature and spiritual symbolism (chapel). This juxtaposition reflects the existential tension between the transience of human life and the permanence of nature and the sacred. The cyclist symbolizes activity, freedom of choice and constant travel, while the chapel and the tree are symbols of permanence and rootedness in spiritual space.

The phenomenological approach allows us to focus on the experience of the moment. The photo encourages the viewer to immerse themselves in the details: the texture of the tree, the play of light on the white walls of the chapel, or the delicate landscape in the background. It is an invitation to contemplate everyday life as something deeply meaningful.

The central point of the work is a monumental tree – a symbol of permanence and rootedness. Its broad, powerful silhouette seems to be a guardian of time, a witness to the countless transformations of the landscape and human fates. The tree is a bridge between the past and the present – its roots are deeply embedded in the earth, while its branches spread towards the sky, in an eternal pursuit of transcendence. The chapel on the left side of the painting is almost ascetic in its simplicity. Its white facade contrasts with the dark entrance – a metaphor for the transition between light and darkness, the sacred and the profane. Its presence evokes the idea of a spiritual refuge in a world full of chaos. In combination with the tree, it creates a dichotomy of nature and culture – the two pillars of human existence.

The figure on the bike – partly captured in motion – becomes a symbol of man’s constant striving for new horizons. The bike as a travel tool is also an expression of harmony with the environment; its mechanical simplicity harmonizes with the organic form of the tree and the austerity of the landscape. The cyclist’s clothing – an orange vest contrasting with the grey sleeves – attracts the eye and gives the image dynamics. The orange colour can be interpreted as energy and passion for life, while the grey symbolizes peace and reflection.

The background of the composition shows vast fields and forests under a blue sky. It is an open space, almost idyllic, but devoid of idealization - we see traces of winter in the form of remnants of snow and the harshness of the earth. This landscape seems to be a silent witness to human efforts and dreams, reminding us of the cyclicality of nature and the fragility of life.

The light in the photo is soft and natural, giving the whole thing a subtle intimacy. The shadow cast by the cyclist and the tree suggest late afternoon – a time to reflect on the day.

The photo is in keeping with the romantic tradition of adoration of nature. The monumental tree is the focal point of the composition, emanating strength and durability. The chapel – modest and simple – emphasizes the connection between man and spirituality and nature. The open spaces in the background evoke a sense of infinity and a longing for something greater.

The composition of the photo is sparse, but incredibly expressive. Each element – a tree, a chapel, a cyclist – has its place and meaning. The lack of unnecessary details allows us to focus on the essence of the scene: the relationship between man and his surroundings.

The photo uses contrasts: movement (cyclist) versus static (chapel), nature (tree) versus culture (building), individual versus community (symbol of the trail). These opposites create tension, but at the same time a harmonious whole.

The figure on the bike is an allegory of constant movement towards the future, towards new horizons. The cyclist is in line with the transcendentalist thought of Henry David Thoreau, who claimed: “Wildness is the salvation of the world.” The movement of the cyclist symbolizes the human drive to discover new spaces, both physical and spiritual. The cyclist’s orange vest contrasts with the grayness of the landscape, which can be read as a metaphor for the energy of life in the face of the harshness of nature.

This photo is a visual poem about life, spirituality and the bond between man and nature. Its simplicity conceals a profound message about transience and the search for meaning in everyday experiences. This photograph is more than just a documentation of a moment – it is a visual poetry telling the story of human fate. In its simplicity, it conceals a depth of meaning: from the metaphor of a journey through life to a dialogue between man and nature. Thanks to its universal themes and harmonious composition, it becomes a timeless work of visual art.

And here I will leave you with your thoughts. I really liked the brevet formula. I have also really liked Kotlina for years. Sometimes the most difficult things to see are when they are right under your nose – you just have to look a little deeper.

P.S. The print of the photo is of course for sale, and the entire proceeds will go to the account of the "Shibas in Need" association (I refer you to the entry about our case). Offers in private. In case of an exceptionally high offer we can do bikepacking to Oława with the author's signature.