HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski 2022 season review

    Before I will dive into race performances of HRE Mazowsze serce Polski, I need to remind one of their activities away from sport. Team took break from racing in march to participate in help for people of Ukraine, who were fleeing away from war. That alone means that the team was one of the most succesful cycling teams around world for me, since they had proven their ,,sportsmanship'' even above sport, which is something many teams forget about. Cycling is not everything.

    Mazowsze squad consisted from mix of their last year riders (including some great leaders) and young prospects, who were generally gaining their first experience with continental cycling. Team had to face departure of Mihkel Räim, who provided 4 UCI wins in last season. On the other hand, Alan Banaszek, Jakub Kaczmarek and Marceli Boguslawski, who all gained victories last year aswell, stayed on board.

     From those names above, it was definitely Boguslawski who made biggest step forward in his career. He shined throughout season and crowned his performances with various victories and great stagieire opportunity. His all rounded performances resultsed into wins in many sprints, aswell as prologue in Estonia  and general classification of Dookola Mazowsza. Including non-UCI races, he celebrated 11 victories this year. As reward for his results, he was granted possibility to race for Bike-Exchange Jayco as staigaire in last months of season. However up to this day, there was no confirmation on his contract for next year.

    Alan Banaszek already had established position as one of dominant sprinters at European continental races level earlier. This year, he developed into April racing specialist. He won two individual stages and one TTT that month, celebrated general and points classification victory at Tour of Thailand and won Belgrade-Banjaluka overally aswell. That was just part of Mazowsze great run of form, as the team actually recorded eight UCI wins during month of April! Later in the year, Banaszek was struck by misfortune and collected second and third places at most, while not being away from victory in some cases (one of highlights was Turul Romaniei with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and twice 5th place and awesome 4th place on GC). Despite that, his consistent performances were rewarded by transfer to Human Powered Health team.

    Teams third star of the season was Jakub Kaczmarek. As one of older riders from the squad, it could be said it was his duty to win Belgrade-Banjaluka after dominant performance of Mazowsze. In reality it obviously was not as easy. He nearly took another win in another of teams collective power showdown in GP Czech Republic, but it is nearly impossible to beat Adam Ťoupalík in punchy finish, unless you have great day. He also seemed very fresh at opening days of CRO Race, however he had to abandon on stage 3, while sitting 15th on GC.

      One of most entertaining moments of season for Mazowsze was definitely Memorial Henryka Lasaka, where Tomasz Budzinski won from group of four - he was alone against three Elkov riders! Very special moment happened in June, when Norbert Banaszek obtained Polish national title in road race. Kacper Gieryk also marked success during nationals, by winning U23 ITT championships in front of his just 18 years old teammate Mateusz Gajdulewicz.

     National title added up big tile to complete teams awesome season. They have broken record in UCI points gained aswell as victories. Alltogether, Mazowsze riders raised their hands on 17 occasions in those races. Mostly younger riders of team also participated in races on Polish national level and collected multiple wins there. Overally, Mazowsze was 5th best continental team in terms of UCI points, 3rd best in Europe. There is really not much more for Polish team of this level could achieve.

Season ranking: 10/10

If you don't follow me on twitter yet, feel free to  check my profile out!