From the streets of Croydon to the top step of a WorldTour podium, the final stage 7 of the Tour de Pologne was a special and slightly surreal day for Marcin Bialoblocki.
The 31-year-old has been riding on the UK domestic scene this year with Continental-level outfit One Pro Cycling but swapped the city-centre criteriums and time trials for rather more glamorous surroundings this week as part of a Polish national team at their home race.
And on the final-day time trial, he upset all those who compete two tiers above him with a commanding performance on the 25-kilometre circuit in the old Polish capital of Krakow.
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“It’s incredible, absolutely incredible,” Bialoblocki said in English after emerging from a Polish media scrum. “It doesn’t compare, it’s absolutely different level [to a Continental race].”
“I wasn’t expecting the victory. I was doing what I could, there were lots of crowds, everyone supporting. Some people came like 700 kilometres to support me and I said ‘I will give everything’. After the finish I fell off my bike – I couldn’t stand on my feet.”
One Pro Cycling, the team founded this year by ex-cricketer Matt Prior, has submitted an application for a Pro Continental licence for next year, which would give Bialoblocki a taste of more races like this. He has had a successful year in Britain so far and is currently fourth in the British Cycling rankings, but he can’t help but admit that leaving it behind is an attractive prospect.
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