It wasn’t really that obvious, that Stybar could win the World Championships with such ease. Everybody was expecting a Stybar-Albert duell but as the race unfolded, that wasn’t the case. Here is how it happened.
As he later said, he was exceptionally calm before the race, even his heartrate was below average, a mere 85 bpm. He kept smiling and enjoyed the cheers from the home crowd.
Niels Albert looked much more concerned. As it later turned out, he had every reason to be concerned – he gave up the race after 6 laps.
Stybar started very well, he led the field in the first lap.
However, in the second lap, he fell back to the 10th place and things didn’t seem to go for him.
It didn’t took long for him, however, to climb back and from the 4th lap, if I remember correctly, he was back in the front and from then on, no one could get even close to him.
This tricky, icy slope caused many low-speed crashes during the weekend, but he didn’t make any mistakes there and rolled through each time unharmed.
I loved this part of the course, the way the riders were pedalling flat out. As you can see, no one is behind Stybar. At least not in his sight.
His last lap. The announcer and the crowd went mental, everbody knew that unless he got a technical problem, no one can take this title away from him.
Victorious, tired, happy.
Moments of joy on the podium. He had a perfect season: he had won the Czech National Championships, the World Cup title and now the World Champion title too. The GvA and Superprestige title winners are yet to be determined but he stands a good chance there as well – but even he admitted that the World Champion title will turn his normal training protocol upside down, henceforth he might not be able to be int he form it takes to win these latter titles.
Stybar and his girlfriend talks to the press.
