“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>Download the app.
HAMMERFEST, Norway (Velo) — Cycling superstar Zdeněk Štybar is facing an uncertain racing future after a comeback from double leg surgery.
The Arctic Race of Norway is the Czech rider’s first race since surgery for iliac arteryendofibrosis in May. Speaking to Velo, Štybar said he is keen to test his legs.
“Let’s say I was racing the past three years, because it is progression, let’s say that last year I was racing on one leg,” Štybar said. “Now I have both legs again.”
Also read: Chasing the midnight sun: Racing in the Arctic Circle
The Czech star is happy to be back in the bunch after a long period away from racing. After joining Jayco-AlUla in January, Štybar only raced stage races at the Saudi Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico this spring.
After underperforming in the spring classics, the medical team decided it was time to operate.
“We will see how the recovery goes and how the shape will be,” he said. “The numbers are one thing, but the performance is something else.”
‘It would be like cutting off your legs’
Stybar, pictured here earlier this season, underwent double surgery. (Photo: ASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Štybar said he could produce solid numbers in training, but felt blocked during racing.
“Before my surgery, I could my training and all my intervals, but in the racing, I could not react,” he said.
“It would be like cutting off your legs. You don’t have any blood flow in your legs because of the kinking of your arteries. I had it in both legs. Normally a rider would have it in just one leg, but I had it both legs.”
Despite cold and miserable racing weather at the Arctic Race of Norway, Štybar, 38 in December, was happy to click back into the pedals.
“My surgery was after Amstel Gold Race, that was my last race,” he said. “It was recovering on a long period and training on my own. It was a tough period for me, and some bad luck on the personal side. It was the worse four months of my life.”
Also read:
“I have never been four months without sport in my entire life. It was a tough period, and I am so happy that I am back. I hope I don’t have more complications.”
After a string of other health issues, including bouts with COVID-19 and surgery for cardiac arrhythmia in 2021, Štybar remains uncertain if he will keep racing.
After being at the top of the sport for more than a decade, Stybar said he’s living “day to day” in his recovery to full health.
“There are not many races left. I am at the end of contract,” he said. “We haven’t opened up any discussions. I didn’t know how I would feel, and the team didn’t know how I would recover. I would love to race until next year. It has not gone well, and of course I must provide an addition to the team.
“I hope to prolong. Whatever it will be like, I live now from day to day.”
#ArticRace 🇳🇴
The racing returns tomorrow for us at the @ArcticRaceofN 🙌
We also welcome back @GroendahlJansen after a long time out with injury 💙 pic.twitter.com/kqz5fnD2sk
— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) August 16, 2023