Stage 2: Małbork - Gdańsk, 162km
Climbs:
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Zamiejska (cat.3) 600m @ 6,5%
Stoczniowców (cat.3) 800m @ 5,5%
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Święty Wojciech (cat.3) 400m @ 7,0%
Ulica Zamiejska (cat.3) 600m @ 6,5%
Ulica Stoczniowców (cat.3) 800m @ 5,5%
With 10 categorised climbs you may have been forgiven for thinking that this is more of a mini-Amstel Gold type stage than it is - it's still a pure rouleur's race, as we move out of the former Ostpreußen region, although remain in the Vistula delta. Starting in the historic city of Małbork (Marienburg to Germans), there will be plenty of scenery available at the start, for Małbork is home to
Ordensburg Marienburg, built by the Order of the Teutonic Knights and holding the distinctions of the largest castle by area in the world, and the largest brick building in Europe. The opening part of the stage consists of 60 very, very flat kilometres to Pruszcz Gdański, before things get interesting.
Just north of Pruszcz Gdański lies the tiny settlement on a hill of Święty Wojciech. There are a couple of ways to access this. The main one is a narrow road, however we are descending that and climbing up to it by the other way, which is a short climb of 400m averaging 7% on
tiled and holed concrete blocks; there is a further short flat stretch on these at the summit before the descent. Nevertheless the rough texture of these will require riders to put some power out to evade the bone-rattling nature of them. The riders then head into the centre of Gdańsk, our finishing city, via a couple of short climbs, but both of these are tarmacked. Just after these climbs we roll into the city centre for our first passage of the finishing line on
Targ Węglowy, which marks the approximate halfway point in the stage, allowing the riders and the TV cameras to soak up the images of this beautiful port city, formerly known as Danzig, that has caused so much controversy over the last century.
From here the riders head back to the south and take five loops of a circuit of just under 15km in length, each one punctuated by a rolling stretch including some concrete roads and the nasty Plattenweg-styled road up to Święty Wojciech - I can imagine some flyweight riders suffering with the repetitions of these - with the final ascent of this nasty surface coming with 13,1km remaining on the day. From here the riders take on the double act of Zamiejska and
Stoczniowców once more, the final climb, the longest of the day at 800m, topping out just 4,5km from the line. This final stretch in to the finish is quite technical, with 9 real corners and a few smaller curves in it, the last being at
Plac im Dariusza Kobzdeja with 500m remaining. The finishing line is slightly cobbled but not in any way more severely than, say, the Champs Elysées are cobbled. Nevertheless the closing stretches will be quite well suited to a small group or solo attacker if they only have a few seconds over the bunch, so even if the hill circuits haven't thinned the group out too much the closing stages of this one could be quite interesting.
Małbork:
Gdańsk: