World cyclo cross champion Zdenek Stybar has had a further setback to his season, being told that he must take a complete break from racing until Christmas.
The 24 year old has been struck by knee problems since mid-November and, despite previous indications that the issue is improving, it now appears that is not the case.
“He urgently needs to rest,” said two of the Telenet-Fidea team’s medical professionals, professor Hespel and doctor Vincent Van Belle, according to Belga. “What we have done in the past three weeks has fought the fire in Zdenek’s knee, but it is still flickering. Training will only resume once the knee problem has completely vanished. We will get him back to basic condition work first with the intensive work after that, so the competition can begin again.”
“I think it’s very sad what is happening, but I realise now that it makes sense,” said Stybar, accepting the advice to stop. “I’m in a vicious circle and I must get out of it. I can only do that by taking a complete rest. I am aware that [the chances of] my final victories in the World Cup, the Gazet van Antwerpen trophy and the Superpresitige are zero, but so be it.
“I want the last part of the season to not be compromised, and to get my strength back. I hope that I’m back racing again after Christmas. If that’s successful, I can still have important goals after the New Year.”
Stybar’s frustration will be all the more pronounced as he started the season so well. He dominated the early races, winning the first two rounds of both the World Cup and the Superprestige, and also took the opening leg of the Gazet van Antwerpen trophy. However his Halloween win at the Superprestige in Zonhven was his last victory in those competitions, giving him a dry spell of over a month.
He now looks set to miss the upcoming rounds of the World Cup, in Igorre (Dec 5), Kalmthout (Dec 19) and perhaps Heusden-Zolder (Dec 26). The next after that is in Pont-Chateau on January 16th, by which time he will hope to be back to full strength.
There is just one Superprestige race between now and February, namely that being held in Deigem on December 27. He may or may not miss that, but he’ll certainly be absent from round four of the Gazet Van Antwerpen trophy in Essen on December 11th. Round five will be held on December 29th in Loenhout.
The 2011 Elite world cyclocross championships will be held on January 30th in St. Wendel. Stybar’s goal will be to be back to full form by then. Whether or not that works out, there is a plus side to his enforced time off the bike: that will give him reserves which will stand to him if, as is rumoured, he moves to Quick Step and targets the Spring Classics.