Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep) believes that he is back on track for the 2016 season after cutting down his cyclo-cross commitments. The Czech rider had originally planned to race around six events over the winter but chose to ride only one in December, saying that his form was behind where he needed to be after a long and stressful 2015.
Stybar had a lengthy 2015 that included riding all five monuments - Bram Tankink and Jose Joaquin Rojas were the only others to do so. Added to that, he welcomed the birth of his first child, all of which added up to a delay in his training. Stybar had to make the tough decision not to race his beloved cyclo-cross but is now happy with his form going ahead of his first races at the Mallorca Challenge. “In December it isn’t a catastrophe and now I think I’m right on the way,” Stybar told Cyclingnews.
“I really don’t like to go into cyclo-cross just to ride for 20th and to fight with myself. I just hate it. If I do it, I would really like to enjoy the racing and to fight for the big places and to be in the race not just to start because I can’t do that,” he said of his change of plans. “If I want to be in that condition, I will have to adapt my training schedule in December and then do all the races between Christmas and New Year and then I would have to recover. It’s good training but, in general, I would lose almost three weeks of specific training for the road season.”
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The Classics
Stybar is set to ride a similar early-season programme in 2016 as he builds up towards the spring Classics. Following the Mallorca Challenge, he will ride the Volta ao Algarve, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo, plus all of the Classics right up to Paris-Roubaix in April. Following that, he will make a decision on whether or not to ride the Ardennes and attempt to complete all five monuments.
Stybar will then take a break and gear up towards the Tour de France in July, where he’s looking for another stage win, but he is not worrying about that too much right now. “It is way too early to talk about the Tour though because I am not really thinking about it at the moment. For me, it is full focus for the spring to try to be there in as good a condition as possible,” he said.
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