Right, I've got another race to post shortly, but before I do, one more of these - need to get this one out of the way before railxmig arrives in this part of the country otherwise it might cause some confusion. I'm thinking this climb will be Góry Święty Anny, I did once have an out-and-back kind of race in the style of the 2012 Olympic road race from Opole there, as a Memorial Joachim Halupczok race.
Nordic Series 12: Jakuszyce
Sitting just beneath the Przełęcz Szkłarska pass, the Jakuszyce sport hotel & spa has long been a major centre for Poland's leisure facilities, with mountain biking facilities as well as the extensive Nordic skiing trails. A biathlon centre was installed comparatively recently, and although the venue has yet to take precedence in Polish biathlon's focus from Duszniki-Zdrój, it has stepped in as an IBU Cup host, and has also appeared as a host of a round of the Cross-Country World Cup since the reprofiling a few years ago. It is also the home of the
Bieg Pastów ski marathon, which has been held since 1976 and part of Worldloppet in recent times. And if you've got the infrastructure to deal with the World Cup and Worldloppet, you've got the space and capacity to cope with the influx of athletes that a bike race will create.
As you'll no doubt be aware, the only WT race in this area is the Tour de Pologne, but the old Friedensfahrt, if it ever got started, could go here, as could its present U23 version and the Czech Cycling Tour, given that we're very close to that border - Jakuszyce was the border station of the old Zackenbahn railway that ran through the Sudeten and Karkonose mountains back when the area belonged to Germany; after WWII the railway lay unused and out of service until as recently as 2010 when Tanvald, the terminus in the south of the old Zackenbahn, was reconnected to the Polish side of the railway and service resumed. There's always the Szlakiem Grodów Piastkowskich, though the lack of a castle at Jakuszyce would hurt its prospects for that particular race.
Even if there are concerns about space (which there shouldn't be) the close proximity to Szklarska Poręba (indeed, the XC World Cup stage here was credited to Szklarska Poręba) which also has some Alpine facilities and a scenic centre. The town also hosted the Tour de Pologne fairly frequently back in the early 2000s, when the race tended to end with a semitappe, MTT or short circuit race around the legendary mountain town of Karpacz, whose reputation was set in the old Peace Race days. Riders to win in Szklarska Poręba back then include Raimondas Rumšas, Franco Pellizotti, Rinaldo Nocentini and Fabian Wegmann - though since the mountainous element of the Tour de Pologne moved down in to the Tatras and away from the Karkonosze range, the town has been off-limits for thirteen years.
The actual finish at Jakuszyce essentially sits at the second (travelling north to south) of a double summited ascent, with the Przełęcz Szkłarska being the first and the arena being the second. This really isn't that threatening a climb, as you can see from the
Quäl dich page - the northern side is essentially 5,5km at 4% with the max ramp being 9%, before a rolling final 2km. The southern side, from the Czech Republic, is more promising, 4,8km @ 5% with a max ramp early on at 11% and only 500m flat to the summit. There are some more interesting ways through Szklarska Poręba to make things a bit spicier, however, and I've chosen to use one of them in a stage that could shake things up.
Stage proposal #1: Zielona Góra - Jakuszyce, 173km
This is perhaps the most 'basic' stage, and thereby one that's comparatively realistic for the Tour de Pologne, save for the absolute monstrosity in the middle. Javier Guillén would love the Stog Izerski climb, to the signal station above Świeradów-Zdrój. It's the first 4km of
this absolute killer, with 2km averaging 16,2% at the end. This is very much the kind of thing that the Vuelta has been adding with La Camperona, Mas de la Costa and so on. Carnival gradients. But unlike the Vuelta, this is more like if we put in the Collado de los Ballesteros - since it can't be the finish. We instead have a narrow descent back into the outskirts of Świeradów-Zdrój before an Aprica-like 8km @ 3,5% climb and a plateau into Szklarska Poręba. This means that once we factor in that gradual ascent up to Jakuszyce, we've essentially had 34km between the monolithic gradients of Stog Izerski, 26 of which were flat or uphill false flat, so hopefully we should see the steep gradients shred the field, and then 30km of riders struggling to cope with the more simple challenges with the lack of support and with their legs having had to wrestle them over the complete opposite type of climb.
Vuelta al Polish Vasco, anyone?
Stage proposal #2: Wrocław - Jakuszyce, 196km
This is a more up-and-down all day kind of stage of the kind that the real Tour de Pologne tends to present in the Tatras, only without the circuit element that Czesław Lang seems to love. 9 categorised climbs, and the finish isn't one of them even though it possibly should be. The first couple don't really count for much, except that I wanted to go through Sobotka, which has hosted the national championships a few times recently, and keep the first half of the stage rolling so it's not a complete cold open when the riders reach the real climbs.
The first one, Przełęcz Rędzińska, has a final 2km at 11% which is plenty tough enough (just
check out the profile!) before a quick loop-de-loop; Przełęcz Kowarska from this side is just a stop off on the way to the Okraj pass, and is
simply not threatening as this profile shows - so ending before any serious gradients; as a result I quickly loop around the town of Kowary and up the steeper old road - with
the final 2km at 8,2% to resolve it before descending the same drop back into the town on the newer main road. The next climb is the legendary Karpacz-Orlinek climb, where Alberto Contador got his TT victory that was his first pro success, and where vaunted Soviet climber Sergey Sukhoruchenkov took the lead of the 1984 Peace Race, wrestling it from the shoulders of Bulgarian grimpeur Nencho Staikov in an epic duel. The last time professional cycling saw this climb was 2012, but early in the stage, while its last time as a finish was
2006. Here, it's 45km from the finish, but precious little of that is flat.
This ascent may be iconic, however, but on modern tarmac and for a modern péloton, it isn't quite the danger it was then. As a result, we add the Złoty Widok climb before arriving at the base of Szklarska Poręba. However, instead of going straight to Jakuszyce, we have something more interesting in store. Firstly, we ascend towards Świeradów-Zdrój as though we were climbing toward
the famous Zakręt Śmierci mirador. The spot is a 180-degree hairpin with stunning views of the valley and the mountains, but hazardous for vehicles and inheriting the name, which translates as "turn of death". We don't quite make it to the turn of death, though, turning left just beforehand, after climbing a 4,1km @ 6,8% climb - first kilometre at 8% - through the northwestern part of the town, staying away from the valley roads. There's then a short respite before a final 700m at 7% cresting 11km from the line. We then descend into the middle of Szklarska Poręba and then, the coup de gras.
The Odrodzenia road in Szklarska Poręba is ugly-beautiful - a blight on the town and a nuisance for commuting and living on, but a thing of beauty for cycling enthusiasts - 925m in length and ascending 86 vertical metres - 9,3% average and max 18% - on rapidly worsening cobbles that get very gnarly near the top, mis-aligned, narrow and just generally not very pleasant. And cresting less than 7km from the finish because this is a slight diversion that means we take this instead of part of the ascent to Przełęcz Szkłarska. So when we finish the cobbles it's literally 100-150m of downhill and then back onto the false flat that takes us to the finish - so it'll be very interesting to see who deals best with this.
Stage proposal #3: Jelenia Góra - Jakuszyce, 142km
A short and sharp mountain odyssey, this one, which also includes our first approach from the south side of Przełęcz Szkłarska, from the Czech Republic. As ever, Poland does not really have any of those super-sized Alpine ascents, so we have to go with quantity to create the same effect - à la the old Mozart quote about writing music "as a sow piddles". As a result, this particular stage, which starts close by to the finish and loops around it in a complex S-shape which includes a couple of looping ornaments, has no fewer than 9 categorized ascents, including the HTF/MTF. Jelenia Góra also has some cycling history, hosting a MTB challenge named for Polish star Maja Włoszczowska and the 2014 University Cycling World Championship, attached to the Universiade, which was won by Petr Vakoč. It has also hosted the Friedensfahrt on many occasions, even after the Wende, most recently in 2004 when Sławomir Kohut won in the city. It was frequently the host of stages which came across the border through the Karkonosze range, or routes circling the Riesengebirge such as in 1980 and 1992 when it directly followed Karpacz MTFs. Part of the benefit of this was that it meant the organizers could precede ASO by a great many years, and use both sides of the same climb, with the harder northwest side of Przełęcz pod Czołem featuring a descent which ran through the main body of the town and then meeting up with the lower half of the Orlinek climb - a typical design of the time would climb through Przełęcz pod Czołem through the town of Karpacz, loop back on itself and then finish with the MTF at Orlinek, then the following day's stage would start as we do here, with the harder side of the pass. By modern standards it's not the most challenging climb, but in those days, coming off day after day of chasing those monster USSR and DDR teams around over horrific cobbles, often in awful weather, it could shatter some wills.
Here, its role is to create a strong breakaway, as the next couple of climbs are not especially threatening, featuring Borowice, which includes looping around and matching the same first 4km of the Przełęcz pod Czołem before looping back around towards Podgórzyn for the Złoty Widok climb that we saw in the last stage. From here we once more climb up through Szklarska Poręba and this time we go all the way to "Death Turn" before continuing along the plateau toward Świeradów-Zdrój.
Now, I'm not such a sadist that I'll make people descend that ridiculous couple of kilometres of Stog Izerski, so instead we have a little loop around the ski resort town; this entails the brutal climb - which comes at a little under 60km to go - being bookended by two ascents of a small and barely significant cat.3 ascent. After this, there's 20km of rolling terrain as we cross the border into the Czech Republic, not far from the tri-national border with Germany also, before we come up against possily the most sustained climb of the day.
Smědava from Bílý Potok is an
undulating ascent of 7,9km @ 5,6%, which crests with 23km remaining and, crucially, very little respite as the descent is only a couple of kilometres long before a plateau to the scenic mountain lake of
Vodní nádrž Souš before a small rise and then descent into another famous wintersport venue with one notorious piece of cycling heritage - Harrachov.
Harrachov is home to one of the small number of authentic ski flying hills in the world - only five are cleared for competition, with Čerťak (the Harrachov venue) having a hill size of 210m. Vikersund, Planica, Tauplitz/Kulm and the Heini-Klopfer-Skiflugschanze at Oberstdorf are the only larger ski jumps in the world currently in operation. And why is it notorious for cycling fans? Because it's the only ski jump hill to have ever been climbed in a cycling race.
Yes, that's right: after 30km of time trialling, the riders had to climb this.
You know the best thing about it? Nobody knew about it until the day before. There was a scheduled ITT finishing at the wintersport venue. But when the teams arrived the night before the race, chaos ensued as team directors saw the outrun from the ski jump paved and the finishing line being set up at the end of the table. Only 1/3 of the riders were able to ride to the top without putting their feet down; the East German team once more predated modern cycling by a good generation in undertaking complete changes, clambering off and swapping their wheels for fatter, heavier ones to get more purchase on the absurdly steep surface, eventually putting the majority of their team right at the top of the standings, the only interloper being Poland's Zenon Jaskuła, who of course later went on to podium both the Friedensfahrt and the Tour de France, beaten only by Peter Winnen to that accolade. Just for the lolz, Altimetr.pl has
mapped the ski jump climb with a total of 1km @ 11,1% from the town up to the summit, but 200m at TWENTY NINE PER CENT on the actual ski jump.
Here, we're just a few kilometres from the finish with that 4,8km @ 5% to give us a sprint-of-the-remaining-elites. We can, however, include the false flat and ramp beforehand here, so the final climb is a total
7km @ 4,1%... enough options to try to break up a small group but perhaps not a large one.
Stage proposal #4: Jawor - Jakuszyce, 177km
This stage has a fairly unusual setup in that it starts and finishes in Poland, but the majority of the stage's distance is spent in the Czech Republic. This isn't impossible - countries are sometimes used 'in transit' in major races, such as Italy in the 2009 Tour or France in Gent-Wevelgem, but not typically for this much of their distance without getting a start/finish so presumably for this kind of stage to work the ensuing stage would need to start from Harrachov or Tanwald. It also approaches Jakuszyce from the south, but has a range of different, difficult Czech climbs to mark it. One down from the last proposal (eight) but more connectivity and less Amstel Gold-like complexity in the route. Also, Jawor is one of the castle towns that make up the route that is the basis of the Szlakiem Grodów Piastowskich, so this could potentially fit into that race, although unlikely given the amount of time spent off of Polish territory. The start features the same Przełęcz Rędzińska climb that opened up the festivities in the earlier proposal, but where in my second stage I only ascended the Okraj climb as far as Przełęcz Kowarska, here, we climb all the way to the summit, which is a long and gradual but iconic climb along the border that frequently was a major challenge in the Peace Race in stages connecting cities like Wałbrzych, Trutnov, Jelenia Góra and Karpacz. It's an iconic summit, but it's not especially selective in modern cycling - though it gets progressively steeper, the average is still only 2,5% with the final 5km being the only parts averaging over 5%.
Just after the border crossing, there is the Skigebiet Mala Upa:
We are now headed into the Krkonošský Národni Park, the Czech side of the Karkonosze range, and after the long and gradual descent, we climb the first part of
Černá Horá, one of the Czech Republic's most feared climbs - the first half is not all that tough, however, with only a couple of steeper sections, so I guess it's kind of like doing Viapará and not continuing on to Anglirú.
The rest of the climbs will certainly keep the riders honest - from Vrchlabí we climb up to the mountain shoulder town of
Benecko - around 7km @ 5,1% according to the
Altimetr.pl profile - before the Rezek climb which consists of a long section of uphill false flat at around 2-3% before ramping up to a final 3km @ just under 8%. Františkov (or more accurately, the junction with Penzion Družba at it) is actually further along the summit from the Rezek climb on the road down to the ski town of Rokytnice, but instead of that we descend another main road and climb back up, to ramp up the difficulty, instead taking on this 4km @ 7,5% climb which is very inconsistent and includes ramps of double that on a narrow and tricky road cresting just 30km from the finish.
From here, though, we have the most important climb of the day. After descending into Dolný Rokytnice, we cross the river and climb up toward Rozhledna Štěpánka. Only we are headed to the Paseky nad Jizerou ski station, but we don't take the main route, climbing the 290 and turning right before Příchovice, and instead we take the smaller, narrower road through the village of Paseky. You can see it on the right here.
This is 4,6km @ 6,6%, so not exactly monolithic, but it crests just 17km from the line and the steepest 500m - from 1,1km to 600m from the top - is at an average of 12,8%. The last 1100m averages 10%, so there's plenty of chance to make it selective, before the short drop then a kilometre or two of false flat that then leads into the same final climb as the last stage, past Harrachov and then up to Jakuszyce.
The problem with some of these less well known regions to racing is that not so many of the climbs are fully traced so getting precise data is sometimes difficult - indeed there's the possibility some of these figures may be slightly out as I've had to trace them myself in these Czech climbs, as only some of them have been picked up by the main sources for these areas, the two major Polish mapping sites (Genetyk, which unfortunately also includes a wide number of climbs which are absolutely impassable for road bikes, and Altimetr.pl) only have selective climbs around the Czech side of the mountains, mostly focusing on the big MTFs from when the post-Wende Peace Race used to finish at places like Praděd and Vrbatova Bouda, whereas there's pretty good mapping of a lot of Polish climbs; let's also not underestimate the impact having a WT race has on that too. Quäl dich! has a fair few Czech climbs but only clustered together as it seems like there's only a couple of users who have been adding climbs in specific areas in the Czech Republic.
However, this does have the flip side, which is that it's a lot easier to be innovative with uncharted waters; lots of opportunities for a creative stage in this area using climbs which could produce some great racing but are not clichéd super-sized climbs, and also some Guillén fantasy ramps on some narrow roads that would potentially make the Tour de Pologne into a much more dangerous race than it presently can be - but then we've had a few Friedensfahrts and Tours de Pologne in this thread that showcase that, underneath that seemingly bland, featureless flat top 3/4 and the repetitive stages through specific areas of medium mountain terrain in that southern quarter, actually there's a lot of potential in Poland for racing going untapped. Railxmig is in the middle of showing us that once more, in fact, producing a series of great climbing stages around the Tatras and showing that even the flat parts of the country needn't be dull. The Ostbloc past means there's still a few cobbled streets and Plattenwege, the former kolkhoz lands give opportunities for exposed open roads and crosswind carnage, and some of the roads up the few mountainous regions the country has are garage ramps. Most finishes may be on more gradual slopes, but is that necessarily a bad thing?
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