After winning La Flèche Wallonne Femmes, Kasia Niewiadoma celebrated not only her individual and Canyon-SRAM's team result but also confirmation that her continued belief in herself and her strength would pay off one day.
Last year, Niewiadoma broke a drought of almost five years without a victory when she won the UCI Gravel World Championship in her first outing in the sport's newest discipline. The result came after a slew of near-misses dating back to her last victories in 2019.
Niewiadoma has been there or thereabouts since she made her pro debut in 2013 and has animated numerous races with her aggressive racing style but rarely has been able to celebrate on the podium's top step.
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Three-quarters of her podium places have been seconds and thirds, and most of her victories have come in lower-level events. Before Wednesday, she had just two one-day WorldTour race victories to her name: the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in 2018 and the Amstel Gold Race in 2019.
After last year's Tour de France Femmes where she was able to attack on the stage over the Col du Tourmalet and hold off everyone but eventual winner Demi Vollering (SD Worx) - that was the first indication that her hard work was beginning to pay off.
She narrowly missed the podium in Strade Bianche and then made the winning move at the Tour of Flanders only to fall just short of the win behind Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).
To finally taste victory again at La Flèche Wallonne made the Polish rider "super happy".
"I'm just looking forward to going back to the bus and celebrating with my girls because I feel like that's the beautiful part about winning is to celebrate with the close ones," Niewiadoma said to CyclingPro.net.
"I really do hope that a lot of people will be inspired by the pursuit of their own success because it always happens as long as you're keeping faith and hard work then, yeah, then you can hold it in your hands.
"It's all about the faith ... if you know what you're capable of and you don't let anyone make you feel less or if you don't let any failure make you feel like you don't deserve something then anything's possible."
Niewiadoma took a lesson from Lorena Wiebes' mistake of celebrating too soon at the Amstel Gold Race only to be pipped by Marianne Vos.
"To be honest after Sunday's finish ... I just wanted to cross the finish line and then celebrate because anything can happen and I was too tired to even look back. So I didn't know if the girls were coming or if they were even on my wheel. So the moment I finished I crossed the finish line, I was like, what the...?"
At 29, Niewiadoma is reaching the prime of her career and seeing the benefits of a more ambitious training regime in the off-season.
"Together with my coach, we put a lot of effort into the similar intervals like what you do during the [Mur de] Huy."
At the end of last season, Niewiadoma said she would focus on the Ardennes Classics and had taken a lot of notes from the 2023 season in formulating her training plan with her coach.
"It's always tricky to actually know how to prepare yourself for the Classics so that you don't overdo it, but you have enough to sustain your performance from Strade Bianche at the beginning of March to Liège [Bastogne-Liège] at the end of April," she said to Cyclingnews last year.
"I think, with my coach, we were a bit too soft with the training because with every week I could feel I was getting stronger and by the time I was getting into good shape the Classics had finished!"
This year, she found top form just in time. With Liège-Bastogne-Liège just days away, she preferred not to think about the prospect of a second victory.
"Definitely the confidence is high and I am not thinking about Sunday yet. I just want to really enjoy today because it's very special for us. And of course, I know that I'm in good shape so we will now use it to our benefit on Sunday."
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