Absolutely brilliant! Young Czech Bittner dominates stage at Vuelta, beats Belgian star – Sport.cz

After eleven years, a Czech cyclist celebrates a stage victory at the Vuelta. In 2013, Zdeněk Štybar and Leopold König even celebrated two days in a row. Nothing since then. Until the next generation of young people were to come. Mathias Vack was not missing out on the laurels in the opening trial by two seconds, but his partner Pavel Bittner was no longer so unlucky.

In the previous two big races, he took a solid sixth and fifth place, but far from the favorite pair of Van Aert and the Australian Kaden Groves. In the same flat stage of this year’s Vuelta, however, he improved his ability. “I told my teammates that I believe we can really do it today,” Bittner said.

Finally, he received exceptional support from his colleagues from the dsm-firmenich Dutch stable PostNL. “Over the past years, we have worked a lot on team play. The boys worked amazingly for me, especially when they prepared a very good situation for me,” said the Czech talent.

Then all that was left was to finish the job. And Bittner did it brilliantly. He found the rear wheel of the star Wout van Aert, started on his strong legs and passed the Belgian. Both were running out of strength in the last few meters and at the first moment it seemed that the green jersey of the favorites reached the finish line first. But Bittner threw the bike to the finish line better, which was finally confirmed by the finish photo after waiting for a while.

“It’s just crazy to beat Wout in a long finish, in which he is one of the best sprinters in the world,” rejoiced Bittner, who became the ninth Czech rider to dominate a senior The last time Jan Hirt was among the winners was at the Giro Italiana. “I thought maybe one day it would work The first look? Amazing. Maybe this is the beginning of Czech cycling coming back to prominence,” Bittner hopes.

He is having a very positive season. After all, three weeks ago he did not have a single professional victory. He then ruled twice in the sprint at the Tour of Burgos, earning him a nomination for the Vuelta. And suddenly he did what only eight other Czech cyclists in history have done. “At the same time, I never considered myself a complete sprinter, more like a classic. But we’ll see how it goes,” laughed Bittner.

Vacek, the second of the Czech representatives, finished the stage in 31st place. Nothing has changed among the riders in the overall standings, Slovenian Primož Roglič still holds the red jersey. The 37-year-old Portuguese champion Rui Costa, who was injured when his teammate Owain Doull fell, had to retire.