Styby made his presence known in the final stage of the Eneco Tour. Our champion was in a breakaway and led the race for a long time. “But unfortunately there were a few lazy riders in the group. If I was their team leader I'd have cut their salary by 50%. If there had been a little more cooperation, maybe we could have fought for the victory.”
The stage featured 22 hills and was like a mini Amstel Gold Race. Styby was up for the challenge and ended up in the right breakaway. “A perfect situation. We were away with 12 men and had a three minute lead. Unfortunately all that work was done by just a few men. Not everyone was working with us.”
Our world champion was frustrated. “I was really mad at those who didn't want to do any work. I don't understand why they went in the break. We had a great chance to make it to the finish. If you don't do anything in the break, you might as well sleep in the peloton or do something else useful. Now they just got on my nerves.”
Juan Antonio wasn't cooperating either. “He was defending the leader's jersey of teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen. I respect that. Maybe his presence helped us. Sky wasn't working in the peloton. Ah, in the end it was a wasted effort. We were caught.”
The peloton stayed together once the break was caught. After 200 kilometers Boasson Hagen was the fastest and the young Norwegian secured the overall victory. Styby finished in the peloton and ended up 26th in the general classification, two minutes behind the winner. “Within a week I'll leave for Hamburg for the World Tour and after that I'll train in Livigno for two weeks.”