Zdenek Stybar can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible. As the Czech rider posed for photographers ahead of Etixx-QuickStep’s pre-Paris-Roubaix press conference on Friday afternoon, he flashed a grin that showed the success of his mid-week dental work.
Stybar’s false teeth – he lost the originals in a crash at the Eneco Tour last year – rattled loose on the cobbles at the Tour of Flanders last Sunday, and he spent the final 70km of the race unable to eat solid food, subsisting on a diet of liquids and gels, though he managed to finish the race in ninth place.
While his peers spent Monday recovering from their exertions at the Ronde, Stybar visited a dentist to receive a replacement dental bridge, and he said that he had encountered no problems during Etixx-QuickStep’s reconnaissance on the pavé on Friday morning.
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“They’re okay now, they’re really well glued and brand new,” he said. “I really hope I don’t lose them again now. It was really disturbing in the race last week. Maybe I won’t eat any coconut bars or sticky candy for a while, but drinking from the bidon or eating a bar isn’t a problem. You don’t feel it racing, but you do notice it when you lose half of your teeth at the end of the race.”
Despite the absence of Tom Boonen, Etixx-QuickStep still has a trio of Paris-Roubaix contenders, as Stybar will lead the line alongside Stijn Vandenbergh and defending champion Niki Terpstra. Stybar’s cyclo-cross background means that he was tipped as a future Roubaix winner on belatedly turning to the road full-time midway through 2012.
Although he views himself as being more suited to the Tour of Flanders, Stybar performed better at Paris-Roubaix in his first two springs with QuickStep, finishing sixth after a collision with a spectator forced him out of the winning move in 2013 and then taking fifth last year.
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