In Belgium the cycling season has started with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Zdenek rode a good race, but didn’t manage to get in the front due some crashes in the peloton. “But there were also three guys too strong today. Congrats to winner Greg Van Avermaet.”
“We went fast all day long”, says Zdenek. “Also on the cobbles. It’s a strange feeling the first time on the cobbles. And it’s always very nervous too. And that caused some crashes. Tom Boonen of our team went down twice and also Niki Terpstra crashed and had a flat tire.”
Styby luckily didn’t crash, but lost a lot of time sitting behind the crash. “Since then I was chasing and riding from group to group trying to get back in the front. In the end we had a strong group, but there were three riders too strong: Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan and Sep Vanmarcke.”
Eventually they would sprint for the victory and it was Van Avermaet who was the fastest. Styby just missed the top 10 and finished 14th. Tomorrow he will start in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.