ŽDENEK ŠTYBAR

On wanting to win the Worlds and Mallorca’s top carrot cake

What’s your favourite place to ride? My favourite place to ride is at home in Stribo, in the Czech Republic, simply because I was born there and it’s where my family lives now. Unfortunately, we’re not there that often because we split our time between Belgium and Mallorca.

What race would you most like to win if you could?

I’ll take three: Flanders, Roubaix and the Worlds. It would be cool to add a rainbow jersey to my titles from cyclo-cross and BMX [true: Stybar was the under-8 BMX world champion]. The other two are just great races together with Strade Bianche, which I have won.

Tell me about your hardest regular training session. That depends. It depends on how it I am at the time. I really love to train hard and ind the limits of how far I can go in endurance and intensity. The hardest was probably something from my cyclo-cross years.

What’s your favourite café stop? It’s in Santa Maria on Mallorca, and I sometimes stop there when I’m doing a big ride in the hills. They have really good carrot cake there, maybe the best.

Describe the perfect o f-season.

I think I had it last year. We stayed for the whole period in Mallorca. My family and my wife’s family all came to visit us and we just stayed in one place, which was so di ferent to the season. We had some barbecues and just chilled out. It was perfect just to spend time with my wife and son.