Styby and his team Etixx-Quick Step had an off-day today in Milan-Sanremo. Our Czech champion fell to times in the first big classic of the season. “The second time was in the descent of the Poggio. Game over.”
“It was not my day”, Styby begins his story. “The first time I crashed was in the descent of the Capo Berta. I thought the race was over for me. Yet I closed the gap after a while. It was a little miracle really.”
Zdenek felt a lot of power in the legs. “So I attacked on the Cipressa and later on the Poggio with Philippe Gilbert. Our breakaways were not successful, but due to that I was still in the front of the peloton and I wanted to stay there.”
“In the descent of the Poggio it went wrong. Edvald Boasson Hagen went to late into the brakes and Gilbert, who was at the wheel of Boasson Hagen, drove full against a wall. There was no space to avoid a crash and so I went over him together with some other riders.”
The race was over. “I’m angry. I prepared myself well for this race. We rode 300 kilometers, most of it in bad weather, and then with 3 kilometers to go you crash. A black day for the team, because also Michal Kwiatkowski was involved in the crash.”
“Mark Cavendish unfortunately was already dropped at that time. Sprinting would have been difficult for Kwiatkowski or myself, but maybe we could try a late attack… A very bad day for me. I also missed a food bag and my computer did not work most of the time.”
Importantly, Styby didn’t hurt himself much. “My ribs hurt a little, but that will pass. Hopefully we had our bad luck for all the classics today in Milan-Sanremo and soon it will be all better.” His next race will be the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen next Friday.