🇨🇿Zdeněk Štybar x Paris Roubaix, 2013🇨🇿 This was a defining moment early in Styby’s road career👇 His first Roubaix, and he was the only rider able to go with Cancellara to bridge a 32 second gap to the 2 leaders, catching them right before hitting Camphin-en-Pevele 🏎️🚀
Zdenek Stybar: From 7-year-old BMX world champion to a 37-year-old treasured by all
CyclingThursday, 19 October 2023 at 10:12
With the conclusion of the Tour of Guangxi, the 2023 road season has now ended. This year, we bid farewell to numerous prominent riders, one of whom is Zdenek Stybar. The Czech rider finished his last race in Giulin on Tuesday, and we would like to honor him as the first passerby in our Retired series this fall.
It was at the Münsterland Giro on October 3rd that Stybar indicated to IDLProCycling.com that his career might be over in just two weeks time. "My contract is expiring and it’s going to be very difficult. This situation (a period rife with injuries, ed.) isn’t really helping me. I would like to achieve a good result, and I will still try, so I am going to keep fighting. But it’s tough," said the Czech in Osnabrück.
On October 17th, the time had indeed come: end of the line for Stybar. With a photo on Instagram, he confirmed the end of his career. "That’s it… Last World Tour race of my career. Not really the way I did expect, but life would be boring if we can plan everything, right? Now is the time to sit down and think about the future", said the 37-year-old rider, who completed his last race kilometers far away from his wife and children.
A glance at the comments under that post reveals a stream of top riders. From Remco Evenepoel ("Congratulations Styby mate") to Wout van Aert, Julian Alaphilippe ("memories for life"), and Mathieu van der Poel ("I will miss you on the Zeelandbrug. See you soon mate"): all thanked the likable rider for what he brought to the peloton over the past years. A smile, help when it was needed, but certainly also a lot of quality.
Anyway, let’s start at the beginning: Stybar was born on December 11, 1985, in Plana, a city in the far west of the Czech Republic. That’s where he found his love for cycling, initially BMXing. Videos still circulate on the internet of a 7-year-old (!) Stybar becoming world champion, after which he eventually switched to a new sport at the age of 12: cyclocross.
In this discipline, the Czech also proved to have quite the talent: in 2002 and 2003 - when Kevin Pauwels and Lars Boom won - he was already on the podium of the World Championships for juniors. But the real breakthrough came with the U23s: both in 2005 and 2006, he became world champion in cross for the U23s, in a generation that also included Boom, Pauwels, Niels Albert and Radomir Simunek. In 2007, he finished fourth in that category before becoming a full-time professional for Fidea a year later.
Stybar was one of the first riders to make the switch from cyclocross to road racing
As a Czech, he competed against the likes of Albert, Boom, Sven Nys, Bart Wellens and Klaas Vantornhout in his early cyclocross years. The World Championships in his home town of Tábor - where he also hopes to compete in 2024 - was a first highlight in his career, as he was able to fend off the mighty Belgian block in front of a home crowd. "People shouting my name, the drumming,... It was very special. I'm going to celebrate my victory, but not with Belgian fries," he jokingly said afterward.
In St. Wendel, where he had previously become the world champion in the U23 category, he extended that title a year later. This was a few months before he signed a contract with Quick Step, where he also wanted to focus more on road racing. "I am now 25 years old, and it's about time," he stated at his announcement, where he initially also mentioned that he wanted to focus on mountain biking.
After a few months on the road, Styby completed a full cross winter in 2011/2012, but after that, he really became a full-time road racer. In his first full season on asphalt, he crowned it with victories in the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Tour of Poland, and the following year he also made his entrance in the spring classics. In Paris-Roubaix, he was in contention for the win until the end, but a collision with a photographer at Carrefour de l'Arbre cost him a podium spot and possibly even the win. Later that season, he won the Eneco Tour.
At the end of 2013, he dipped his toes in cyclocross again. With just six crosses in his legs, Stybar went to the World Championships in Hoogerheide, where he surprisingly won the rainbow jersey for the third time. "You know, I wasn't sure last week if I would start. I read messages about the severity of the course and so I doubted. Thursday I came to explore, and luckily the doubt turned around. I knew I could do something here and aimed for the podium," he said after his victory. Five Belgians finished in places two to six, while the rainbow jersey was shown in the field only once in the winter that followed. It was clear that Stybar was now a road racer.
Stybar and the hunt for a Roubaix trophy
A more than deserving one at that. In 2014, he was great in races like Roubaix, Sanremo and even Paris-Nice, but the golden year was really 2015. Not riding cyclocross in the winter season paid off early that spring with a splendid victory in Strade Bianche, where he left Greg Van Avermaet and Alejandro Valverde behind in the streets of Siena. Then there was a second place in the E3 Saxo Classic, which put him among the favorites for the Monuments.
In Flanders - never his best race - he finished ninth, after which he completely dedicated himself to Roubaix. Stybar managed to work his way to the Velodrome in the North French city with teammate Yves Lampaert and a few other riders, where his buddy gave it his all. However, John Degenkolb of Giant-Alpecin turned out to be just a little bit faster than the sympathetic Czech, who later that season won his only Tour de France stage victory on a hilly finish in Le Havre.
As a loyal Quick Step pawn, Stybar rode for years alongside guys like Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen, who hung up his bike after Paris-Roubaix in 2017. However, it was not Tornado Tom, but Styby who was in contention for the win in that edition: together with contemporaries Sebastian Langeveld and Greg Van Avermaet, he sped towards the velodrome, but there the Belgian turned out to be just a bit faster. A bitter pill for Stybar, who maybe wasn't even the best version of himself yet. "I closed many gaps in service of Tom. In the finale, I ended up in the lead with a group with Van Avermaet, but I hoped that Tom would still return. I would have been very happy for him. I learned a lot from him and I will always be grateful to him for that," he said afterwards as a faithful domestique.
That was certainly the case in 2018 and 2019: in that first season, Quick Step won pretty much everything you can imagine in the spring, but not with Stybar. De Panne (Elia Viviani), E3 (Terpstra), Dwars door Vlaanderen (Lampaert), The Tour of Flanders (Terpstra), Scheldeprijs (Fabio Jakobsen), Fleche Wallonne (Julian Alaphilippe), and Liege-bastogne-liege (Bob Jungels) were all added to the list of victories, but not by the faithful pawn from the Czech Republic, who still finished in the top ten everywhere.
Stybar among the victims of corona pandemic
Consequently, his motivation might have been even greater in 2019. By winning a stage in the mountainous final stretch of the Tour of the Algarve, he clearly showed he was in top form, a fact that was confirmed by his impressive victory in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. In the 'small Tour of Flanders,' he again demonstrated his strong form: following an excellent lead-out by Jungels, he out-sprinted the intrinsically faster Wout van Aert and Van Avermaet. Despite being a favorite, he was unable to capitalize on his form in the Tour of Flanders and Roubaix.
Just like many riders of his generation, the outbreak of the coronavirus has been a turning point in Stybar's career, whose last victory dates back to the Vuelta a San Juan in 2020. In 2021, there were still highlights with a fifth place in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic and a seventh place at the World Championships, but by the end of 2022, Patrick Lefevre had to conclude that the twelve-year story between Stybar and his team was over.
Jayco AlUla provided a much-needed lifeline, yet the challenges for the Czech cyclist persisted. His struggles were eventually attributed to a constriction of the hip artery. "The tests revealed that this was the root of the problem, and it was precisely the answer I had been seeking. It clarified why my performance had dwindled over the past three years, prompting me to opt for surgery, without which my career would have surely ended," he disclosed post-surgery.
New problems (read: corona) however led to another setback, which just proved to be one too many. Yet, we can still expect to see him in the coming months, as he shared with this site. "When I return from Asia, I will decide what I want to do with the cross winter. I would like to do it, as the World Championships are in Tábor. That would be a nice main goal for me.” And then he will, exactly fourteen years after that first world title in his own country, have come full circle.
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Latest Comments
- Van Aert is really handsome. He can influence me all day! Ditto for Philipsen. Why do you think many of us love cycling?: to see heroic attempts at climbing mountains at high altitudes or to watch speedsters sprint for the finish line or to watch a human being ride at break neck speed down a tricky descent? No, it's all about their lean physiques and muscular legs. (apologies for objectifying these dedicated and amazing athletes).BarwonHeadsUp25-10-2024
- It is unfortunate that the author can't feel the joy that Pogacar brings to the sport and his fans who are legion and I for one feel lucky to have watched such a memorable performance and historic season From the Strada until yesterday with multiple wins in stages in both tours and beyond dominance in the World's. He is proud to wear the Rainbow stripes, shows his leadership to protect his fellows and is as courteous and sportsman-like as the sport allows. He goes early to not have to respond to each attack as all the rest would make him do it. Any racer who could would do the same. Don't "grow tired" of greatness as it is always fleeting.ccrider13-10-2024
- What load of rubbish. Pog is likely a once in a generation cyclist, the like of which hasn't been seen since 'the Cannibal '. How many people were complaining that Merckx was making racing predictable? I remember this year's World RR as one of the most exciting I've watched. Mainly BECAUSE Pog was the favourite and launched what everyone thought (Pog included) was a suicidal attack with 80km to go. For the next 2 hours, I was on the edge of my seat thinking "this is too much, even for Pog". Maybe Zonnefeld prefers the snooze-fest that is a bunch sprint? Like most people I know, I can't watch two hours of the bunch riding very fast... I wait for the final 5km and watch just the sprint. In any event, most races are won from a sprint or lone break. What difference does it make who makes the lone break? Ultimately, the other contenders will have to figure out a way to beat Pog. Even if that means collaboration between teams. It's going to be an exciting few seasons, until the next Pog arrives on the scene. If this is boring, heaven knows what exciting looks like!Michael513-10-2024
- This is not a gravel race. UCI fail, from the surface they are on to team tactics. In what country was the first "gravel race" in what country is the most popular gravel race? Go with the race model that created the discipline.
Barnes127411-10-2024 - And don't forget he has now won 4 of the big 10 races (Grand tours, Monuments and WC/OG) in one year with a chance to make that 5. (5 has only been done once before)Joostmehrtens05-10-2024