The Belgian race will mark Zdenek Stybar’s first outing since last month’s National Championships.
Zdenek Stybar will be back to action this Sunday at the 17th edition of Gooikse Pijl, a 198.1km-long event held in the province of Flemish Brabant. The experienced Czech rider was supposed to start the Tour de France, but a knee injury ruled him out of the race just days before the start in Nice. Now, after recovering at home and slowly returning to training, the reigning E3 Harelbeke champion is ready to pin on a number again.
“The past few weeks have been quite difficult. Not doing the Tour was a disappointment, and on top of that, that small injury also prevented me from training for a period of time. Fortunately, I could do some rides in the past few days and I hope for a good test on Sunday. I can’t wait to be back in competition and I’m really looking forward to joining the boys”, said Zdenek.
Together with him on Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s roster for the Belgian one-day race will be Iljo Keisse, Stijn Steels, Bert Van Lerberghe and young US stagiaire Sean Quinn, a team that sports director Geert Van Bondt is confident can play a role in the finale: “We have a nice line-up, we’re glad to have Styby back and are very motivated and ready to do our best. It’s going to be a circuit race and we have some cards to play, which hopefully will bring us a good result this weekend.”
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
Bert Van Lerberghe 