If we apply the phrase all’s properly that ends properly to Kasia Niewiadoma’s 2023 season, it will be truthful to say this yr has been tremendous for the Canyon-SRAM rider. Her outcomes have given a agency springboard to overtake her rivals in 2024.
Within the first half of her season she was not firing on all cylinders, having been considerably conservative in her winter coaching. By her personal admission, it isn’t all the time simple for Niewiadoma to search out the candy spot of being finely tuned sufficient to realize constantly sturdy outcomes by way of the primary half of the season, dominated by the Classics.
Issues had begun tentatively, with a twenty fourth place on the Classics season opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, sixth at Strade Bianche, a goal race for her during which she has been a runner-up a number of occasions previously, and fifteenth at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, which she received in 2018.
“It’s all the time difficult to really know methods to put together your self for the Classics so that you just don’t overdo it, however you will have sufficient to maintain your efficiency from Strade Bianche in the beginning of March to Liège [Bastogne-Liège] on the finish of April. I feel, with my coach we have been a bit too smooth with the coaching as a result of with each week I may really feel I used to be getting stronger and by the point I used to be entering into good condition the Classics had completed!”
Niewiadoma had climbed up the outcomes sheet by the Tour of Flanders and Amstel Gold, taking fifth and fourth, however It wasn’t till Itzulia in Might, that the 29-year-old bought her second on the rostrum. Although her greatest outcomes got here through the Tour de France Femmes in July, the place she completed in third place on GC and received the Queen of the Mountains competitors, after her sturdy efficiency within the fog on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.
Niewiadoma remembers the stage the place she got here second to general winner, Demi Vollering, fondly:
“On the Col d’Aspin when Annemiek [Van Vleuten] attacked I used to be in a position to stick with her – not solely to hold on, however I felt like I may keep on, and that positively gave me confidence. I used to be blissful that I used to be capable of keep away and the bunch by no means caught me, apart from Demi.
“I used to be positively pleased with the Tour de France Femmes, particularly with that specific stage. Lots of the time I’d be dropped from Annemiek [Van Vleuten] when she put in an assault. So I labored on it in Andorra earlier than the Tour de France Femmes, simulating her assaults or the best way that she would experience and drop me, and the onerous work paid off.”
From World Championships disappointment to elation
Sickness put Niewiadoma out of the World Championships in Glasgow, and after restoration she continued her sturdy type with a second place general on the Tour of Romandie, rapidly adopted by her donning the rainbow jersey on the Gravel World Championships, and her first win in 4 years. She adopted that with a closing season victory at Massive Sugar Gravel within the US.
Granted, this had not been a particular goal for Niewiadoma, however a win is a win. Coming into the occasion, her first-ever gravel race, she had saved an open thoughts, and handled it like a Classics race given the variety of roadies that have been on the beginning record.
Not solely may she draw on her late season power, but additionally took confidence from feedback made by her accomplice, former racer Taylor Phinney, and by EF Training-EasyPost’s Lachlan Morton with whom she had performed off-road rides. She had acquired good technical expertise, and so they each believed she may smash it in a gravel race.
Nonetheless, changing all her power and expertise into one thing significant on the day was one other matter, and arriving initially line was nonetheless a nerve-racking expertise, at the same time as one of many stronger riders within the area.
Niewiadoma remembers, “The course appeared very onerous, and earlier than the race I used to be telling my accomplice that I didn’t wish to race it. It was simply terrifying, with all these huge climbs.”
Fortunately as soon as the race started, she discovered her good legs and was capable of put in that trade-mark gutsy racing that she is thought for since bursting onto the skilled scene in 2014.
The 2021 World Street Race bronze-medallist already had type on gravel roads in Italy, having been the runner-up at Strade Bianche on three events. Nonetheless, a gravel biking race can be a special ball sport, as Niewiadoma explains:
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever performed earlier than. You go onerous from the beginning and there may be little or no aspect of driving in a peloton. It felt like we have been all doing a time trial, with a steep climb within the closing. The factor that gave me confidence was figuring out that different folks behind have been struggling too!”
Again to the paved roads
As for the upcoming 2024 season, the newly-crowned Gravel World Champion has already taken learnings from this season and is constructive about her strategy for subsequent yr.
“With my coach, after each Classics race, we have been taking notes and ideas and I actually hope I can use that within the subsequent season. For the Tour de France Femmes, what I would like to enhance will likely be my longer climb potential, so when Demi [Vollering] goes, I can go together with her and might compete within the closing kilometres as a result of this yr she was positively a degree above me. The best way she handed me on Tourmalet that day was actually exceptional.
Niewiadoma has already nailed her colors to the 2024 season mast when it comes to what she will likely be concentrating on: Strade Bianche and the Ardennes Classics.
And what a couple of win on Alpe d’Huez? The 2023 Tour de France Femmes polka dot jersey winner is extra circumspect.
“Effectively, I’ll positively be doing a recon of Alpe d’Huez. I’ll attempt to make it as pleasurable as doable, however they are going to be onerous periods.”