Zdenek is still suffering from a knee injury and has been told to rest by doctors. He will leave the team training camp near Almeria on Saturday and return to Belgium to recover. Our champion shares his thoughts on STYBY TV.
The following is a press release from the team:
It's not going well with Zdenek Stybar's knee. While the other riders from the Telenet-Fidea Cycling Team were completing a four hour endurance training, the world champion returned to the Marina Playa hotel in Mojacar with knee pain. This led the medical team to decide that Styby needs to rest for ten days. After that he can start training again and return to competition at the end of December if all goes well.
“Zdenek really needs to rest,” was the word from both professor Hepsel and doctor Vincent Van Belle. “What we did the last three weeks was keep extinguishing the fire in Zdenek's knee, but it kept flaring up. We now have to have the courage to say that things can't continue this way. Long endurance rides are clearly too much in this context, but are necessary at the moment to improve the world champion's fitness level. For three weeks he could hardly do any quality training and the effects of that are currently being felt. Therefore the moment has come to say that the world champion will be out of competition for at least three weeks.”
It's the pain after every longer training ride that led the doctors to this decision which was made in consultation with the rider and team management. “It's too bad because the latest ultrasound from last Tuesday was better than the first. Thanks goes to professor Bellemans who continually does these tests quickly. The last ultrasound showed once again that there is no damage to the tendon. Zdenek was doing well. He even rode the races in Koksijde and Gieten pain free, but it's the extensive training rides that he now needs which he can't do. We intentionally aren't giving Zdenek any pain killers or anti-infammatories because these would camouflage the true condition which is not desirable.”
Where do we go from here? “What we've tried so far has provided insufficient results. We therefore are not going to take anymore chances. Training will only resume when the knee problems have completely disappeared. Because Zdenek has been losing fitness for some time now, a progressive period of building fitness is absolutely necessary after a ten day rest period. First we'll work on Zdenek's base fitness before he begins with more intensive work so he can return to competition. That's why the world champion will not be racing before the end of December 2010. In the meantime he can peacefully prepare for the important crosses after the new year. In this way it should be possible to end the cyclocross season strongly,” one hopes.
It's obvious that the world champion himself is very disappointed. “I think this is terribly unfortunate, but I now realize there's no point to pushing on. I'm in a vicious cycle which I need to escape. The only way to do that is to rest, which I'm now going to do. It's extremely frustrating to feel that my knee won't allow what my body is capable of doing at the same time. I'm someone who goes 100% during training, but my knee won't allow it. I'm well aware that my chances of winning the World Cup, GvA Trophy and Superprestige are now zero, which I very much regret, but so be it. I don't want to compromise the last part of the season so I'm taking my foot off the gas now. And I'll do that will all the seriousness I have when I'm training. I'm now going to rest for ten days and then progressively build up my fitness again. I hope I'll be back after Christmas. If that works I can still set important goals for the new year,” the world champion hopes.