Ricky's Polish Adventure-Racing in Poland and I don't speak Polish!

Back in February I had to come up with a racing program that would be both inexpensive and have some high level racing. I am kind of sick of the hurting NORBA scene and I have done the Canada Cups so many times that I needed to do something different, but what? Well my buddy Marty Lazarski came to me and proposed a trip to Poland. We would do 4 races, 2 UCI C1's and 2-C 2's. We would live out of Marty's Grandfathers house just outside of Krakow and would drive his little Civic to the races on the weekend. I said “yeah lets do it”. So I booked my flight and was on my way.The Food and Drink:
Everything in Poland is dirt cheap, for the most part food is 2.5 times cheaper than in Canada. The beer on the other hand is even cheaper. You could buy a 500ml beer for like 1$ Canadian. Some of the food we ate was Progies, Sausage, and beet root soup(borscht). Marty's grandfather made a mean soup. The coffee was real good except for the fact that it came in a euro sized cup, not the North American liter size I am used to. The food in Europe is really good quality, I was talking to this guy from Poland and he was telling me about his trip to North America and how the food over here tastes like paper. I had the best yogurt ever, its called Yogobella and it was unreal, I think pineapple was my favorite. Also Pizza Hut in Poland is really good, full euro style pizzas, not a mad greasy spoon with 3 inch crusts.


The Travel:
My flight schedule was Vancouver, London, Prague, Krakow on both the way there and the way back. I also came to the conclusion that putting your bike in a box then paying 100$ to get it on the plane really sucks so I packed my bike into a big hockey bag and I never got charged- "oh I am just going to play some hockey.” So I flew all the way from Vancouver then got into Krakow really late, then the next day we had an 8hr drive to get to the first race venue in a place called Chodziez (hojesh).


For the next 2 weekends we drove the Civic. For the second race we stopped like 1hr into a 3hr drive to fill up with gas. This guy named Voitec sees that we have bikes in the back and starts asking Marty about it, turns out this guys speaks a little English and is a really cool dude. He asked us where we are going and then he said just to follow him. “How fast are you driving?”, so Marty tells him “oh like 140." So we start following him, he is going like 150-160 on the main highway, then we get on to these narrow 2 lane roads and this guy is just going nuts, still like 150-160 but we are making sketchy 5 car passes all over the place. I was holding on for dear life and Voitec has a wife and a 3 year old in the car. For the 3rd race in Warsaw we fallowed Greg and Anna from the Halls team and we had the old Civic just pinned the whole time 170-180 and we were still getting passed by other guys. I was so scared the whole time, I had a bad race in Warsaw and I think its cause I was so stressed on the drive. I was holding on tight and I look at the speedo it says 180, I look over at Greg and he is talking on his cell like nothing is going on. Then Marty has the quote of the week, “I never thought I would say this but the Civic is just too slow”.


The Racing:
The level of the riders was high, the courses were super short and 3 out of the 4 were very lame. Race 2 was a good course where you could use “mtb skills” the other course were more like cyclo cross races. The longest course was 5km per lap and we did 8 laps, the shortest course was 2.4km and we did 14 laps. The reason for these short races=spectators and TV coverage.


It was huge, people over there love watching the race, the beer stands and sausage grills helped a bit. I was racing well I finished 4th twice, 3rd once and I won the second race. It was the biggest win of my life and to take those euros out on there own turf was so good. Almost as good as the podium girls.


I really had to push myself in the races, the guys were either just in front of you or just behind you. I reached 2 levels of new pain I have never felt before, the one time my legs almost stopped working, the only thing that kept me going was the thousands of people cheering me on and the fact I was winning and only had to hold on for 5 more minutes. The other was when my face went numb.


Language:
Everyone was saying how hard it is to learn Polish. Marty's grandfather was like “what they don't speak Polish in Canada?” this was translated from Marty because the old man did not know a word of English. He would talk to me in Polish like I knew it. I went over knowing nothing but I was on a quest to learn some. Here is what I now know. I don't know how to spell it, so I will just spell it the way it sounds.

Jank weea = Thank you
Jankee = Thanks
Tak = yes
nie = no
chesh = hey
Jean dobray = Good day (this is how you would greet an older person) Dobejay = good Barza dobejay = very good Corva = covers just about any swear words

Accommodations:
The set up we had at Marty's grandfathers was great, big bedroom, big house, kitchen with all the fixings, and a garage for the bikes. There was not much to do and we spent most the time playing PSP and watching the walls, good thing for the English radio or we might have went insane. All they have over there is English music and still no one over there knows any English, what's up?


The hotels we stayed at for the most part were small, very small, you know euro style. However the weekend in Krakow we stayed at this place called the Intercontinental and it was unreal! It was my best hotel experience ever. This place was massive, tons off room to walk around in the robe and slippers. The bathroom was the size of China and had the #1 shower I have ever been in, wicked flow(full waist of water), 2 settings full flow or power wash, removable head, and tons of room with glass walls, it was so good.


Back Home:
It's always good to be home. When I left to go to Poland it was really a wet spring here and when I got back it's full on summer, so sweet.

But I got sick on the way home, I am good now. I got some time off of racing for a couple weeks, then I go out to eastern Canada for Hardwood Hills Canada cup, then the 2 rounds of the Canadian World Cups. Then it's Nationals in July at Mt. Washington on the island, and I just found out I am doing the Trans Rockies with Roddi “hot sauce” Lega and that's in August.


Big Thanks to all my sponsors for making my Polish Adventure and my season possible: Pinkbike.com, Wenting Mountain Cycle, Trek Bikes, Atac clothing, and BenHardy.ca.