Cyclo-cross World Cup #3 preview
Zdenek Stybar will be racing as the defending champion and current series leader at the third round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup on Saturday in Koksijde, Belgium.
Before the mid-season break in the World Cup series, current World champion Stybar was the unchallenged leader of the season, with seven consecutive wins in his first seven races, including the first two rounds of the World Cup. The 24-year-old Czech rider
would lose his eighth race, the Memorial Radomir Simunek, to Radomir Simunek Jr., son of the recently deceased namesake of the race.
Stybar went on to take his eighth season victory in his ninth race, but then injured himself the following week during training for the Superprestige Hamme-Zogge, which was won by Sven Nys.
“It is not very well. At this moment I can barely bend my leg,” said Stybar at a press conference. “If it persists I'll call the doctor.”
He still hadn’t recovered by the big weekend of the GvA Hasselt on 20 November, which was won by his Telenet-Fidea teammate Kevin Pauwels, and the Superprestige Gavere on 21 November, which was again won by Sven Nys.
“The rain and the cold didn’t do it any good,” Stybar continued. “I don’t expect the races at the weekend will be a problem, but I would urgently need extra rest, but that is not easy; I have too many commitments. I’m lying down right now and hopefully will
get one hour per day at the office; this is far too little.”
Stybar maintains the lead in the GvA Trofee series but Nys has taken the lead by one in the Superprestige series. Stybar has another difficult weekend ahead of him, where he will be challenged to maintain his lead in the World Cup on Saturday and in the
Superprestige Gieten on Sunday.
Luckily for Stybar, Nys is out of reach of the World Cup title due to his poor performance in the first two rounds, though he is a favourite for the win in round three in sandy Koksijde, where he has won three times before. Stybar’s opponents in the overall
leadership are the other two of the cyclo-cross ‘big four’ – team-mate Pauwels, who is also Stybar’s opponent in the GvA Trofee, and 2009 World champion Niels Albert.
Women’s 2009 winner Marianne Vos will be sitting out the third round of the World Cup, leaving Dutch national champion and 2009 runner-up Daphny Van den Brand as the favourite. The 2009 American podium finisher Katie Compton will be facing off against several
European opponents, including World Cup leader Sanne van Paassen and British champion Helen Wyman.
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