Zdenek has made his Tour dream come true after only six days. He timed his attack on the tricky uphill finish in Le Havre to perfection, and stayed clear of Peter Sagan and Bryan Coquard. Teammate and yellow jersey Tony Martin however crashed hard.
“I’m so happy for myself, but i also have a double feeling. Tony broke his collarbone in his crash and won’t start tomorrow. I feel so bad for him. He was looking forward to the Tour so much and already after a few days it’s over. And he was still in yellow.”
The German did congratulate Styby right after the race. “I don’t get a lot of chances of the team in a year so I was very happy that they gave me one today. And I took it. Of course I didn’t hesitate, I went in the last kilometer.”
“I saw the sprinters didn’t have any helpers. I thought: if I go now, maybe they will look at each other. And they did. Amazing. I think this is on the level as my first cyclocross world championship in Tabor. It was an amazing feeling then and I feel the same as I did there.”
Zdenek dedicated his victory to his wife Ine and their sun Lewis. “I only saw them a few days after the birth of Lewis. I had to leave for the Tour. So I want to dedicate this victory to them. And of course I’m also very thankful to my team Etixx-Quick Step!”
