MACIEJ BODNAR
Bora- Hansgrohe’s Polish rouleur on Peter Sagan and a strange 2020
Last year was different for everyone.
For cycling, it was pretty good, compared with other sports, but I only did three races. I did Tirreno, the Tour of Poland and the Giro. I was really prepared for the year, I went to lots of training camps before the season.
I knew last December that I was down to ride the Giro d’Italia with Peter.
It was strange last year. Tirreno was in the summer, which was really nice: nice weather, nice views, nice parcours. The weather was pretty good at the Giro, and it was a nice experience to do it in October. For fans, last year was really cool to watch. We didn’t have much space to show ourselves.
I started riding when I was 12, for a club in Katowice, which was famous because it was how CCC got into sponsoring cycling.
My brother, who is three years older than me, finished third in the World Championships junior time trial. I went to the Netherlands as an under-23 rider, it was completely different. You couldn’t communicate as much.
When I joined Liquigas, it was a huge opportunity.
They had Pozzato, Di Luca... it was one of the best teams. When they ask you, you have to say yes. Signing that first contract was incredible. In the first few days I could barely sleep because I was so excited.
When I got a pro contract, I was so happy to be there. I was not thinking about results.
I was not thinking about winning races, and that’s how I created my domestique role for the future. I was working for Ivan Basso, then Vincenzo Nibali, and later Peter Sagan.
I remember the day that Peter Sagan came to Liquigas.
He looked like an American rapper, the t-shirt so low, the cap... They said he was a Slovakian guy, so strong. We did our first training camp together. His Italian wasn’t great, but we spoke to each other in Slovakian and Polish. My first race with him was Romandie in 2010, and from the next year I was with him a lot. I’m lucky to ride with him throughout his career - 11 years is a long time. I am proud of this, as there aren’t many riders who stay competitive for that long.
The highlight of my career absolutely has to be the Tour de France stage win.
There have been many fantastic moments, but the Tour stage is the best. For a rider like me, with characteristics like me, if you win a stage of the most famous race in cycling, it is a dream. When I was a junior I just wanted to simply sign a contract with a WorldTour team, and then later I just wanted to ride the Tour. They say dream big, but I have always just wanted to go step by step. I’ve always known my place in the peloton, with small dreams. But dreams do come true.
In Poland there haven’t been many riders who have won Tour stages.
With my win I beat Michał Kwiatkowski by two seconds, and I told him he would win other stages and that he shouldn’t worry about this one. When he won last year, I repeated my words to him.
In 2016, it would have been great to win that Tour stage where I escaped with Peter and Chris Froome.
There was a great photo with the yellow jersey, my friend in green and me. I will remember that day for the rest of my life because it was so hard, but it was so great as well. There was no time to think, not even speak to Peter about how we could win the stage, because it was so nervous. Peter told me later that he wanted me to win the stage, but then Chris sprinted and we couldn’t lose the stage when we were both there. I meet many people who don’t know I won the time trial in 2017, but they know about this. It was a good memory.
Winning the National Championship time trial has always been good. It has been a good check on my form before the Tour de France.
It’s nice to be there and it’s one of the only races where I can show myself to my fans in Poland. Maybe this year I will try again, although it will be harder and harder as I get older.
Cycling in Poland isn’t in an optimal situation right now.
CCC had a big project, and the pandemic ended it, so the biggest cycling sponsor in Poland has gone. I was sad about it, because it was good to have a big team with big names, and they were trying to get big Polish names like Kwiatkowski and Majka, and develop young riders.