The opening stage of the Patryk Drozdowski Trophy Cup is a 30.6 km timetrial that starts and ends in the centre of the Zywiec, a small southern Polish town on the shores of the lake that goes by the same name. The lake was only formed in 1966 when a dam was finished and the area was flooded, forcing several villages to move in the process. The course runs around the length of the lake, a popular tourist destination which offer...
Read moreThe opening stage of the Patryk Drozdowski Trophy Cup is a 30.6 km timetrial that starts and ends in the centre of the Zywiec, a small southern Polish town on the shores of the lake that goes by the same name. The lake was only formed in 1966 when a dam was finished and the area was flooded, forcing several villages to move in the process. The course runs around the length of the lake, a popular tourist destination which offers spectacular views.
The course has no major climbs with but the it is not flat, with several steeper hills towards the back end of the course and several testing descents. The route takes the riders out of Zywiec and along the river towards the town of Zarzecze. The road climbs quite steeply out the town with gradients reaching 9% but it is not a long ascent and the riders quickly descend towards the end of the lake just north of Tresna on a narrow and poorly paved section of road that requires great descending ability from the competitors. The gently undulating lakeside roads end soon after as the riders take a sharp left away from the lake and towards Lekawica. The road climbs for 1.8 km with an average gradient of 6% and maximum gradients of 11%. The descent out of Lekawica is the second technical descent that can have a large role to play in deciding the overall result. One missed corner, especially in wet conditions, can send riders into all sorts of trouble.
Once across the Lekawka river, the most serious obstacle in the way of the riders is the brutal climb of the hill that Rychwaldek lies on. The longest continuous section of the hill is a 1.9 km, 8% average ascent but sustained sections towards the top hit gradients of 14%. Furthermore, the climbing actually starts 2 km in advance of this section, but there are some small and technical descents that break the climbing up. The descent off of the hill is wide and sweeping, giving the strongest time triallers a chance to eek out a few seconds as they start heading back towards Zywiec. The final 8 kilometres contain some nasty inclines as the legs begin to burn and those who have gone out too hard could end up losing significant chunks of time on each ascent. A couple of very treacherous corners on the descents off of these inclines can claim several victims as the fatigue grows.
The opening time trial of the three-day trophy, in celebration of Patryk Drozdowski who regularly used to train on these roads before retirement, is worth a significant 45 points. However, with two tough days both climbing and descending to follow, the winner will still have to score highly in the following stages. This could be a tough ask for those who lack the ability in the mountains, but who have the strength here to be the star of the opening day.
