Cheryl Walker's participation in the Gran Fondo world Championships in Poznan didn't go to plan ....

Gran Fondo Poznan – IT’S A LONG ONE!!!!

Not sure how much detail you want/are interested in so it’s probably going to be a long one, look away now if you are easily bored.

Gran Fondo World Championship, Poznan. Effectively age-group amateur road race that you need to qualify for in order to have your chance to race for your country. I qualified back in June in Cambridge to represent GB, with some 2000 athletes due to compete on Sunday 1st of September a fairly big event.

Flew Friday morning from Edinburgh and arrived in Poznan midday their time. Poznan airport is really handly and central, 5k away from our apartment and apartment around a mile away from expo, race brief, race reg etc.  Logistics – tick.

Friday - built the bike headed to race reg to receive my pack which consisted of general stickers, bib number and the worlds ugliest sports bottle you’ve ever laid your eyes on. Expo was mediocre with the size of event but I still managed to spend some zlotty. By Friday mid-afternoon it was heating up to 30degrees...Poland was having a heat wave we were told, fabulous.

Saturday was a “try and have a session” day and consisted of mainly resting and remembering to ride on the right plus heading to the very slap-dash race brief at 5pm. To be honest the entire weekend was a bit “slap-dash” sorry Poznan but the organisation was extremely poor for the size of event. I spoke to no-one who disagreed - the entire weekend. Bed early, kit out buzzing for the morning that lay ahead of me. Saturday was also around 30degrees and I was getting increasingly worried about the temperature as just walking around was a task, never mind the 90 something miles I was having to ride the following day.

Sunday. Very civilised start of 09.42 I was in with a large age group of 19-34 females. I got to my own pen early and got chatting to some other brits and some awesome Aussies! Trying to stay in the shade before the start & hydrated as I knew there would be none out on the very bleak Poznan roads. Long, straight, flat, exposed and a road surface as gritty as any in Angus.

Started well, kept with the main bunch which took off at around 27mph, it’s always a shock to the system but adrenaline kicks in. Accelerating out of every corner and up every lump as expected we were getting strung out and I was into the red pretty quickly but praying it would calm down if I hung in. Before the first 20miles came the first of two crashes.  An, assumed touch of wheels in the middle of the pack and a bunch went down, hard. The group split the girls ahead of the crash were off and I was behind it all, a huge gap in seconds. Gone.

Collected ourselves about 10 of us in the newly formed bunch worked hard, we caught a few men and we picked up a few more. The miles passed but it was getting hot, in the race brief they had told us their would only be 2 feed stations in the middle of heat wave for a route of 93miles, temperature around 33degrees. Most of us opted for 2 bottles on the bike and a small bottle in the jersey to avoid having to stop at the aid stations where they were handing out bottled water with screw tops intact!.

Around 40(ish)miles the second crash came. On the right to me, again another presumed touch of wheels, I was at the left of the pack and like dominoes we went down. I remember seeing a red bike go down in front of me and my front wheel hit her bike and over I went into the grassy ditch. Woaw, panicked, not really sure what to do. It seemed both in slow mo but also over in a flash. I got up in total shock, shaking wondering if I was okay and was the bike okay. Yep seemed fine – right lets go, girls were getting up around me although some didn’t. Next came the fatal error which was going to ruin my day, I now realised on my bike I no longer had two 750ml bottles I now only had one, and the one that was half empty. I’d lost my full bottle of diluting and shit I’d also lost my 450ml bottle which was in my middle pocket in my jersey. Oh shit. It was hot, boy was it hot. I lost the bunch and tried to stay mentally strong but I was alone and struggling. I got myself to the feed station 107km (68miles) I knew all was pretty much lost and it was just about survival now so I decided to stop at the feed station I felt ill.

The next thing I know I’m being picked up under the arms by two people and helped into an ambulance. They took my bike off me. It’s all a bit hazy but from there on it was lots of questions, stuggling between polish and English and off to the medical tent I went.

The medical staff were great but it was proving to be some experience. I had 3 litres of fluid pumped into me. The first insertion was painful and unusual (ive never had fluid before – in fact ive never had anything like this before I barely take paracetamol) My left arm was connected to the drip and shortly after the drip started my arm started to swell, im talking SWELL – the vein had collapsed and it was going into my tissues. Excellent.

After some movement I now had a drip in my right arm. But all seriousness thanks to the medical staff for looking after me. Some hours later my mum was able to find me – we were both relieved to see each other and I just wanted home. 

That’s pretty much it. It was over…

Oh no wait, where was my bike? That’s right I remember a man popping his head into the ambulance and telling me he would take my bike…several hours later man and bike were located! What. A. day.

Anyway sorry for the spiel! But that was Poznan!