A first win in five years continued to elude Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon SRAM) as she rode to a career-best second place at the Tour of Flanders, only missing out behind Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).
The ever-positive Niewiadoma wasn’t disheartened or heartbroken as she was at Strade Bianche, with visible improvement to her race form and only a world-class Lidl-Trek team performance denying her a visit back to the top step of the podium.
Niewiadoma was the equal best on the final climb up the Paterberg, alongside the Italian champion, as they left the two best riders in the world from 2023, Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering (SD Worx), behind and with no response.
“I guess I would feel disappointed if I didn't feel that I progressed or I felt like I was further behind in the final. The fact that I’m getting stronger and was able to drop Demi and Lotte on the climb is very motivating,” Niewiadoma told reporters after the race.
“Of course, there's this feeling like 'Oh shit, I wish I won’ because, of course, this is what I’ve been chasing for so long. Yet, on the other hand, I feel like just seeing those other pluses of shape improvement and race improvement gives me extra motivation to not give up and look for another opportunity.”
Niewiadoma’s last victory on the road came at the women’s Tour in 2019, some 1,753 days ago at this point. She also won the world title at the Gravel World Championships last fall. This spring, the Polish has been right up there in the races she’s been at in 2024.
She was seventh at Omloop Het Nieuwblad and fourth at Strade Bianche before taking the runners-up spot today at Flanders. It appears that her 19th win on the road is just around the corner, with her form continuing to rise.
“It was my first podium at Flanders and to be honest, I’m happy with my shape and the preparations that went really well so far,” Niewiadoma said.
“As a team, we’re really optimistic, of course, it would’ve been amazing to win a race here, but we’re on a very good path to win more races ahead of us.”
Niewiadoma only lost out to Longo Borghini with her and teammate Shirin van Anrooij playing the Oudenaarde finale perfectly for the Italian to take her second Ronde title nine years after her first.
But Niewiadoma never thought for a moment not to contribute once the three had got away from SD Worx and the rest of the favourites.
“I did not consider not working,” Niewadoma admitted, with the win firmly in mind.
“I wasn’t thinking that I’m riding for second place or third place. I would catch myself sometimes thinking ‘a podium would be fine’ but then I quickly turned that into ‘no I’m here to win a race’.”
Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini made the junction to Van Anrooij after the Paterberg with 12km to go and, from then until the final straight in Oudenaarde, worked well to maintain their slim gap on the chasing group containing Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the SD Worx stars.
“I knew that by riding, I had a bigger chance of making it to the final 100 metres and sprinting for the victory versus playing a game and being caught by the second group where Wiebes, Lotte [Kopecky] or [Silvia] Persico are faster than me,” said Niewiadoma taking inspiration from Vos’ aggressive racing at Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen.
“I think that in racing, you’ve got to invest if you want to win. I think Marianne Vos showed the best example of that by winning Dwars door Vlaanderen. I feel like you can only play this game if you have three other teammates behind you.”
Niewiadoma was the lone Canyon-SRAM rider involved in the exhilarating finale and perhaps could’ve done better had she had a teammate with her. However, she didn’t blame any of her team, with bad luck undoing some of their other top riders, such as Chloé Dygert, who crashed twice and on the crucial Koppenberg.
“That was a very hard, hectic and dangerous race, so I’m happy that as a team, we were still able to find each other in this madness, let’s say,” said Niewiadoma.
“I think that we just need to be patient because we have a strong team. With more experience and a bit more luck, we can turn things around.”
Niewiadoma was particularly thankful for the positioning into the Koppenberg climb where, by being in the front of the peloton, she was able to ride the brutal 600-metre cobbled climb and not walk as all but two of the race had to do in 2023.
“As we knew from last year, Koppenberg was very important, so the approach to that climb was insane, to be honest. Like really insane,” said the 29-year-old.
“I was able to get into like the top 10 and make it over the climb without having to walk up there which was a big success and from there on just played into a really hard final.”
Niewiadoma’s next chance to break her winless drought will come at Amstel Gold Race, where she has been victorious in the past in 2019. It’s a golden chance for the Polish rider with her shape seemingly at an all-time high and the dominant force at the Ardennes - Vollering - appearing away from her best.
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