Strade Bianche is one of those races where Kasia Niewiadoma has had to become accustomed to the bittersweet feeling of repeatedly being on the brink of a long-sought after result, but this year the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider had to endure an altogether different type of disappointment: a race-ending crash.
After her first fall, Niewiadoma managed to get back on and continue but the second, which occurred with just over 50 kilometres to go in the 136km event, was a different matter. Niewiadoma came down on a sweeping descent, coming down on the left of the road near the barrier. Her teammates rushed to try and detangle her from a bike which had landed on top of her and also another but it soon became clear her race was done.
“You know, as an athlete, when you train for so long and spend a lot of time preparing for certain goals, chasing little details just so you can improve, and then you feel like this is it – like you’re in shape, you have good legs – and then you crash out of the race, it just feels like something has been taken away from you,” said Niewiadoma in a team statement. “Sometimes, it’s hard to digest that over not being able to compete in the final because the legs aren’t there.”
“So yeah, definitely, being in the ambulance and not feeling great, plus knowing that the chance was just taken away from me, felt very upsetting.”
The more positive news, however, was that after being taken to hospital the 2024 Tour de France Femmes champion was cleared of major injury and that team said she should be “back on a start line in the near future”. Still, a photo the rider posted on Instagram showed plenty of clear marks of the impact with skin off on her leg, arm and face.
It is only the second time in the 30 year old’s 11 participations at the event that Niewiadoma has not finished. After coming sixth in her debut in 2015, second through from 2016 to 2018 and third in 2019 there was then the first DNF in 2020. That came in a brutally hot COVID-19 pandemic-delayed edition. Since then, until this year, it has been all top-10 finishes including two frustratingly close podium misses with fourth.
“I don’t feel like I’m disappointed anymore, but it’s just more like a heartbreak – coming back here again and getting kicked about in a different way,” said Niewiadoma. “I’m not sure if I’m more upset about the fact that, again, I was not able to show what I actually represent right now.”
However, in a later social media post looking back on the race which was won by Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), Niewiadoma was able to embrace some of the positives.
“I guess I got a different perspective now! It always could be worse so I’m grateful for what I’ve got, in this case: pretty strong bones.”
