“I just wanted to win and I didn’t do it. I’m happy that I accomplished one of my goals, which was getting the podium at the Tour de France, but winning feels different. It’s a different story. It’s annoying that you put so much time, effort and sacrifices into this one thing that somehow cannot come. I just have that urge to feel satisfied or proud of myself, that’s the feeling I’ve been missing.”
Kasia Niewiadoma has, unequivocally, been very good at cycling for a long time now. She was the U23 European Champion in 2015, and has rarely gone a season since then without at least a couple of podiums at the Women’s WorldTour level. Think of the top performers in the women’s peloton, and Niewiadoma always comes to mind. Make your predictions for the top-five in any Ardennes Classics, and Niewiadoma will be on your list. She’s always there, fighting for the win, securing a respectable position, but the top step of the podium is somewhere that the Polish rider rarely sets foot.
The Amstel Gold Race in 2019 is an anomaly to this trend, it’s here where Niewiadoma secured her only WorldTour level win, beating Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos in a punchy sprint to the line. Since then, it’s been a solid run of second, third and fourth places for Niewiadoma every year in the Ardennes Classics and the Canyon-SRAM rider has been left to puzzle over how to close that gap to the very top. What’s she doing wrong? What can she do differently?
Kasia Niewiadoma at Amstel Gold Race 2022 (Image: Zac Williams/SWPix)
“I think I might miss the element of surprise,” she says. “When I think about how Annemiek attacked at the Worlds, it’s not that she was the strongest but she read the race properly. I think that usually when I go it’s in such an obvious moment and I’m so visible, everyone expects me to go. Everyone is still strong these days so you have to be either extremely powerful or strong and surprising.”
I ask Niewiadoma if she finds it frustrating that she can often be seen in races instigating a breakaway, but once the group is established, a lack of cohesion can mean that it doesn’t stick. “I’m more annoyed with myself,” she says. “Why do I ride with them when I could attack again? But I never go again because I feel like I need to wait for something. I could be…