MPPxRTP Day1

(Photos by: Gliadi Content & Paweł Rzepecki)

1000 km in the middle of winter, across the whole Polish land, from the very North, Hel Penisula to the very South of the country, High Tatars. This was the idea that came to mind last December and with my friend Maciej Kordas, we decided to make it happen.

Why? Well… each year in January in Poland, the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP) raises money on a nationwide scale for hospitals, kids, health equipment and more. It is a huge national movement on a scale hardly visible in any other country, and each year we can see a lot of grassroots initiatives that help and boost this movement, and this is what we decided. To make our ride as part of this, and support an organisation that helps Polish hospitals from 32 years.

We established the charity page, officially supported by WOŚP and started promoting our ride. We also invited two more ultra cyclists from Poland, Joanna Rumińska-Pietrzyk and Jędrzej Gąsiorowski to join us, and meet up on the start line on 11.01.2024 to start our ride, at 6 PM, from the foot of the lighthouse on the pointy end of Hel peninsula. Follow My Challenge offered us a tracking page and our goal was to ride for 72 hours along the Marathon Północ Południe and Race Through Poland routes and raise as much money and awareness about WOŚP as possible.

So before I start this crazy winter ride recap, I will share our donation page here:

https://eskarbonka.wosp.org.pl/tywofyfipi

It will be active until the end of January 2024 and all money raised will be directly transferred to the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity and will be used to support Polish hospitals in the diagnosis of lung diseases. Thank you for any donations!

Coming back to the ride itself.

6 PM, four of us started. The weather was tricky. Ice on the small roads of the city of Hel didn’t stop us, but we were happy when we joined the main county road along the peninsula, taking us northwest to the mainland. The first few hours were fast, we rode at 30km/h, it was dark, but the view toward the three cities on the other side of Puck Bay was pretty impressive.

When we reached the mainland it was minus 2 celsius and the black ice showing here and there on the roads made us worry a bit. We slowed down a little and started to be really careful. The pace was strong anyway, and I was already thinking about our first planned stop at the petrol station, and dreaming about the coffee that I didn’t have before the start. After about 100 kilometers the roads got better. We spoke about it and could feel that the further from the coast we were, the more dry the air was, and the roads became safer to ride, without the ice.

The first stop was great. We arrived at the petrol station in Luzino at about 9:30 PM. I had a coffee, casserole, and some snacks. After about thirty minutes we went back on the cold air and continued. These were the worst moments always, coming back to the ride, after a break in a warm place, but usually, before we went back on the road, we checked the charity page, and seeing that our supporters helping us, was the biggest motivation to continue.

The rest of the night wasn’t easy at all. Not far after our first stop, over 120 km from the start, snowy sections started with tricky ice in places. Still, even with the snow on the road I preferred this from black ice. This was where we had to split because it wasn’t possible to ride next to each other anymore. Before midnight car driver stopped me. He opened his booth and asked if I wanted a tea. In a minute Jędrzej, Maciek and Asia caught up with me. It was our first trail angel and I was happy to see that our charity ride was actually visible.

We did continue, and I don’t remember when it happened but at some point, I did look behind and I couldn’t see anyone. It was cold, much colder than on the coast. When I reached the lakes near Wdzydze Landscape Park temperatures dropped close to minus 8C. The road become pretty snowy and icy again and it was hard to go fast, and warm in the body. I didn’t see anyone for about an hour now, and because of the cold I didn’t really want to stop and wait. I phoned Maciej, and he confirmed that all is good, he is riding, but he asked me to call Asia, because he said that she was behind him, and even when he stopped for a pee, he didn’t see her catching up. I was trying to call her multiple times, but couldn’t reach her. All that calling made my hands really cold. Taking off my gloves wasn’t a good idea, and when I reached Czersk, where our second stop was planned I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. Generally my whole body was pretty cold, mostly because of this bad snowy roads and pretty big temperature drop.

It was 3 AM when I arrive to Czersk on the pertrol station, our km 209 of the route. Jędrzej arrive some minutes later, and Asia with Maciej another minutes afterwards. I could see that all of us got hit pretty hard by these last few hours, and we definitely needed this brake. I ate two portions of pierogi, had a coffee and tea, and a vitamin water. My water bottles were totally frozen and I couldn’t use them anymore. After more than thirty minutes of brake we moved on and all together continued south, leaving Pomeranian Voivodeship behind and entering another region, Kujawy–Pomerania with impressive Tuchola Forest on the way.

The roads were empty, the conditions got better, temperatures rose a bit, and we rode strong all together for a lot of kilometers. I could feel that we all want to get rid of this early morning hours, and reach the sunrise, daylight, and some good energy that will come with it. We arrived to Chełmno, and detoured off the main road witch was pretty busy already. We took some small and steep cobblestone roads inside the town center. It was funny episode, but also created a gap between me riding together with Jędrzej and Asia riding together with Maciej. We did laugh from this section, and agreed that it was a true Race Through Poland insert into a Maraton Północ Południe route.

The last section before our third planned stopped went fast. I did ride the most of it together with Jędrzej, admiring an outstanding red sunrise and gentle rolling hills before Kowalewo Pomorskie. We didn’t know how far Maciej and Asia were behind us, but we decided to continue until our planned petrol station, and wait for them there.

After fourteen and half hour and 320km from the start we reached our third station stop, and this time it took a bit longer until Asia and Maciej joined us. For me and Jędrzej this last section went close to perfect. We both felt fresh and pretty strong, but Asia arrive totally frozen. She complained on her overall body warmth and her hands were frostbitten. It took some time until she got better. I lent her my spring-fall liner gloves that I wasn’t using anyway, so she could have some extra layer on.

At this stop, because our time schedule was pretty tight already, we discussed our plan a lot and we decided to miss our next planned longer stop (it was supposed to be in the next 70kms) instead, we decided to have a longer section and a shorter break at the petrol station in Plock, from where we would have only 60kms to our first sleeping spot in Łowicz.

This time me and Jędrzej continued first, leaving Asia and Maciej behind. We decided that if we arrived in Łowicz first, we would get the food and other stuff ready for them so we save some time, and we would all be able to sleep a little bit longer thanks to this. A teamwork.

The section to Płock was tricky. On the one side, I enjoyed it, because there were many more rolling hills than before, and the ride was simply nice and not too boring. On the other side, we had a lot of sections with black ice and frosty snow on the road, and some short sections were simply dangerous. The wind changed its direction as well, and instead of a tailwind, we were now constantly frosted by cold side winds from the west. I remember laughing with Jędrzej about it and we couldn’t wait to reach the Vistula Valley were we supposed to change our riding direction from South to East.

Temperatures weren’t really bad, a constant minus 3 was something normal by now, and as we had a pretty good pace, my body was able to keep warm and within the comfort zone. Once we reached awaited Vistula River Valley, this situation changed completely. The wind changed, yes, it was now good for us, blowing on our tails, but the humidity in the valley rose a lot, and brought a cold feeling. The frozen river, strong frosty wind, and a long and pretty busy bridge made the river crossing one of the coldest moments of the whole ride. Arriving at the planned petrol station (km 435) was a happy feeling.

We waited for thirty minutes, but Asia and Maciej didn’t join us this time. We decided to stick to our plan and continue to get to Łowicz for 6 PM, and eventually get everything ready for the rest. I ate a box of Pringles, drank a lot of vitamin water, and realized that I was properly dehydrated, mostly because my water bottles were totally frozen, so there was no way for me to drink, other than on our planned stops. I pushed more chocolate into my body, had a warm coffee also, and looked at Jędrzej asking if he was ready to go. He was good, and we moved on together, knowing that Asia and Maciej were really close. Once we were leaving Płock, we did see them coming in. We waved ourselves, and everybody continued. I with Jędrzej pushed to Łowicz to catch our hotel, and Maciej and Asia rode to their final break in Płock.

The final 60 km of this part was crazy. I added one layer on because the wind was so cold and strong. At this moment, about 3:30 PM I had a winter base layer, spring-fall Jersey, winter jacket, and a wind/rain shell on the top. With this setup once again I felt comfortable.

Together with dark hours, the roads got pretty hectic. Black ice on some sections was crazy, and I was riding on the snowy grass next to the actual road to prevent the fall. We were already in another Voivodeship, Łódź, and some roads were really broken.

About 20 kilometers from our hotel, we saw a rider coming, it was Marcin, a rider from Łowicz who heard about our journey and came to escort us on the last kilometers near his homeland. It was nice, and also the roads got much better from this point. The last hour went fast, and we arrived at the hotel in Łowicz exactly within the plan, 6 PM on Friday, 12.01.2024 having done 500 km in the first 24 hours. The snow started falling when we were taking our bikes in. My friends, Mr. and Mrs. Kozłowski waited for us there with a huge bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese and a bottle of Kofola. It was amazing, and not longer than an hour later Maciej and Asia joined us, and we all could enjoy our achievement and have some rest before the second part of our journey.