Zdeněk Štybar

Zdeněk Štybar

Štybar at the 2023 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Personal information
Full name	Zdeněk Štybar
Nickname	Štyby
Born	(1985-12-11) 11 December 1985 (age 38) Planá, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Disciplines	Road Cyclo-cross
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist (Road)
Professional teams
2005–2011	Fidea
2011–2022	Quick-Step[1][2]
2023	Team Jayco–AlUla[3]
Major wins
Cyclo-cross World Championships (2010, 2011, 2014) National Championships (2008–2013) World Cup (2009–10) 7 individual wins (2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12) Superprestige (2009–10) Road Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (2015) Vuelta a España 1 individual stage (2013) Stage races Eneco Tour (2013) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (2014, 2017) Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (2019) E3 BinckBank Classic (2019) Strade Bianche (2015)
Medal record Representing  Czech Republic Men's cyclo-cross UCI World Championships 2010 Tábor Men's race 2011 Sankt Wendel Men's race 2014 Hoogerheide Men's race 2005 Sankt Wendel Men's under-23 race 2006 Zeddam Men's under-23 race 2008 Treviso Men's race 2009 Hoogerheide Men's race UEC European Championships 2006 Huijbergen Men's under-23 race 2005 Pontchâteau Men's under-23 race

Zdeněk Štybar (Czech pronunciation: [ˈzdɛɲɛk ˈʃtɪbar]; born 11 December 1985) is a Czech former professional cyclist, who rode professionally in cyclo-cross and road bicycle racing between 2005 and 2024 for Telenet–Fidea, the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and Team Jayco–AlUla.

In the early part of his career, Štybar prioritised competing in cyclo-cross, where he won three world titles – in 2010, 2011 and 2014 – as well as six consecutive national titles and overall victories in both the 2009–10 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup and the 2009–10 Cyclo-cross Superprestige. Signing for Quick-Step in 2011, Štybar competed more readily in road racing, ultimately winning Grand Tour stages at the 2013 Vuelta a España and the 2015 Tour de France, the Czech National Road Race Championships in 2014 and 2017, and multiple one-day races. Over his professional career, Štybar took more than 60 victories across both disciplines.

Štybar was born in Planá u Mariánských Lázní.^[4] He won his first UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup race during the 2007–08 season at Kalmthout,^[5] and ultimately won the overall title in 2009–10. Following consecutive second places in the men's elite race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2008 and 2009,^[4] Štybar won the 2010 edition on home soil in Tábor.^[6] He then defended his title the following year in Sankt Wendel, Germany.^[7]

In March 2011, Štybar joined the UCI World Tour team Quick-Step to combine his cyclo-cross career with a career in road cycling.^[8] In his first road race with the team,^[9] Štybar finished in third place overall at May's Four Days of Dunkirk, having finished in the same position on the race's queen stage which involved several cobbled climbs.^[10] He also finished third in the Czech National Road Race Championships the following month.

Just as in 2011,^[11] Štybar's first road start in 2012 came at the Four Days of Dunkirk; having finished second on the second stage, Štybar won the penultimate stage (also the queen stage) by ten seconds – his first professional road victory – as he finished second overall behind Jimmy Engoulvent.^[12][13] Having finished second to Jan Bárta at the Czech National Time Trial Championships,^[14] Štybar took his first victory at UCI World Tour level when he won the third stage of the Tour de Pologne in a sprint finish in Cieszyn.^[15] He made his Grand Tour début later in the year, at the Vuelta a España.^[16]

In 2013, Štybar came in sixth in Paris–Roubaix. He was in contention for the victory as he was part of the leading trio with Sep Vanmarcke and Fabian Cancellara when he hit a spectator, causing him to slow down to clip in his pedals. He tried to get back to the two leaders, but to no avail.^[17] In August, Štybar took the overall victory in the Eneco Tour – part of the UCI World Tour – winning two stages in the process.^[5][18] Later that month, Štybar won stage 7 of the Vuelta a España beating world champion Philippe Gilbert in a sprint finish in Mairena del Aljarafe.^[19]

In 2014, Štybar won his third elite world title at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hoogerheide, Netherlands following an intense battle with defending champion Sven Nys.^[5][20] He ran as high as third overall at Paris–Nice, but ultimately lost time on the final stage around Nice.^[21] Over the following few weeks, he recorded top-ten finishes at Milan–San Remo (seventh) and Paris–Roubaix (fifth).^[22][23] Having finished third in the Czech National Time Trial Championships, three days later, Štybar won his first Czech National Road Race Championships title, finishing almost a minute clear of his closest rivals.^[24]

In trying to defend his title in the Eneco Tour – where he had also won the second stage^[25] – Štybar crashed into the steel barriers in the fourth stage near the finish line and was hospitalised, losing his front upper teeth as a result.^[26][27] Upon his return, he complained to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) that the same dangerous barriers were used in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec.^[28] His first victory upon his return was Binche–Chimay–Binche, where he attacked inside of 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) to go on a small cobbled climb after being led out by his teammate Niki Terpstra at the foot of the rise. Štybar had time to celebrate, coming in 2 seconds ahead of John Degenkolb and the charging sprinters.^[29]

In his first start of the 2015 season, Štybar finished in third place at the Vuelta a Murcia.^[30] Having finished seventh at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,^[31] Štybar then won Strade Bianche on his first appearance at the race the following weekend; having been a part of a larger group of leading favourites, Štybar formed part of a trio that battled it out for victory in Siena along with Alejandro Valverde and Greg Van Avermaet, ultimately pulling clear of his rivals as they headed towards the Piazza del Campo.^[32][33]

Štybar recorded two second-place finishes during the spring cobbled classics in 2015, at E3 Harelbeke (left) and Paris–Roubaix (right)

Following his Strade Bianche victory, Štybar finished second in E3 Harelbeke, having unsuccessfully tried to chase down a solo move by Geraint Thomas.^[34] At the Tour of Flanders, his false set of front teeth he broke in 2014 rattled loose as he was riding a cobbled climb and he had to take them off. He still managed to finish the race in ninth position.^[27] He then finished in second place in Paris–Roubaix, being outsprinted by John Degenkolb at Roubaix Velodrome.^[35]

Štybar was named in the start list for the Tour de France,^[36] spending a portion of the race inside the top ten places overall. He met success on Stage 6, where he powered away on a short but steep incline situated a few hundred metres before the finish line in Le Havre. He kept Peter Sagan from reaching him, crossing the line with a two-second advantage over the reduced group.^[37] He then finished third overall at the Czech Cycling Tour, winning the final stage and the points classification, and finished fifth overall at the Tour of Britain.^[38]

Štybar started his 2016 season racing at the Vuelta a Mallorca one-day races, finishing third in the Trofeo Pollença–Port de Andratx.^[39] He then finished second in Strade Bianche after being outsprinted by fellow escapee Fabian Cancellara at the finish in Siena.^[40] The following week, he won the second stage of Tirreno–Adriatico after a late solo attack, to take the race lead.^[41] He held the race lead until the penultimate day,^[42] and having entered the final stage in second overall – seven seconds behind race leader Greg Van Avermaet^[43] – he ultimately lost five places in the general classification over the final 10.05-kilometre (6.24-mile) individual time trial.^[43] He took no further victories for the remainder of the season, recording second-place finishes at both the Czech National Road Race Championships and Binche–Chimay–Binche,^[44] and took top-ten results in the Tour of Flanders (eighth) and the Eneco Tour (seventh).^[45][46]

After top-ten finishes in successive starts at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne (ninth) and Strade Bianche (fourth) in the spring of 2017,^[47][48] Štybar finished second behind Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) at Paris–Roubaix, in a five-man sprint finish in Roubaix Velodrome.^[49] He then won a second Czech National Road Race Championships title,^[50] taking, for the first time, the national champion's jersey to the Tour de France.^[51] The following year, Štybar finished in the top ten placings of eight one-day races on the 2018 UCI World Tour, with a best of result of sixth place at Dwars door Vlaanderen,^[52] the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France,^[53] and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec.^[54] He did, however, win the points classification at the BinckBank Tour.^[55]

Štybar's first start of the 2019 season came at the Volta ao Algarve, where he won the final stage of the race atop the Alto do Malhão,^[56] avenging his near miss from the previous year – when he was caught with 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) remaining.^[57] He then became the first Czech rider to win Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, soloing away from a five-rider move around 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) before the finish.^[58] Having taken a fourth-place finish at Strade Bianche, Štybar added a third win of the season at the E3 BinckBank Classic, winning a sprint of four riders in Harelbeke, following a leadout from teammate Bob Jungels.^[59] Štybar recorded his sixth top-ten finish in seven years at Paris–Roubaix with an eighth-place finish,^[60] but he recorded no further victories for the remainder of the season.

In his first race of 2020, Štybar won the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a San Juan, starting and finishing at the Circuito San Juan Villicum motor racing circuit; he attacked inside of the final kilometre and managed to hold off the sprinters closing in behind.^[61] Following the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced suspension of racing, Štybar finished second to Adam Ťoupalík at the Czech National Road Race Championships,^[62] and finished third on stage fourteen of the Vuelta a España, having been a part of a seven-rider breakaway group.^[63]

Štybar's best results of the 2021 season came on Belgian soil; in March, he finished in fifth place at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, spending the final portion of the race attempting to stymie any attacks from a small group of riders, behind his teammate Kasper Asgreen, who ultimately soloed to victory.^[64] In September, he finished seventh on successive weekends at the Primus Classic,^[65] and the road race at the UCI Road World Championships.^[66] In 2022, Štybar's best result was a second-place finish at the Tour of Leuven,^[67] losing to Victor Campenaerts in a sprint à deux, and he also finished in the top ten at the inaugural UCI Gravel World Championships in Italy.

After twelve years within the Quick-Step organisation, Štybar joined Team BikeExchange–Jayco – later renamed as Team Jayco–AlUla – on a one-year contract for the 2023 season.^[68] Primarily working as a road captain,^[68] Štybar recorded his best result in, what would turn out to be, his final start with the team – a podium finish (third place) at the Hong Kong Cyclothon,^[5] won by teammate Lukas Pöstlberger. Having completed the road season, Štybar left the team following four starts during the 2023–24 cyclo-cross season.^[69][70]

Štybar then competed as a privateer in the 2024 cyclo-cross races,^[71] having previously announced that he would retire following the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in February, which were to be held on home soil in Tábor.^[72] He finished 3rd in the Czech National Championships, and finished in 31st at the World Championships.^[5][73]

Štybar is married to Belgian national Ine Vanden Bergh, and the couple have one son.^[74]

Source: ^[75]

2022

8th UCI World Championships

Source: ^[75]

Grand Tour	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	—	—	80	—	—	—
Tour de France	—	—	—	103	—	102	—	—	—	—
Vuelta a España	76	DNF	—	—	63	—	—	55	102	133

Awarded by Czech Republic

• Medal of Merit (2024)^[76]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zdeněk Štybar.

• Official website
• Zdeněk Štybar at UCI
• Zdeněk Štybar at Cycling Archives (archived)
• Zdeněk Štybar at ProCyclingStats
• Zdeněk Štybar at Cycling Quotient
• Zdeněk Štybar at CycleBase