He still describes himself as more of a classicist. Despite this, Pavel Bittner is mainly successful in sprints. And now came the most sensational. In his Grand Tour debut, he beat one of the biggest stars in the peloton, Wout van Aert, in the Spanish Vuelta sprint. The final photo even had to decide their order. “To beat him in such a long sprint is crazy,” the young Czech could not believe what he had achieved. “It was a nice fight in which I lost,” the Belgian then chuckled.
Before the start of the Vuelta a España he revealed in an interview for the newspaper Sport and the website iSport.cz: “The stages I’m aiming for are the second, third and then the fifth.” In the first stage, which ended in a mass finish, Pavel Bittner was sixth, a day later he improved his position by a rung.
But something came up on Wednesday that apparently caught even the biggest sprint aces at the three-week event by surprise. As expected, the most interesting thing happened in the 177-kilometer stage at the very end in Seville. According to the organizers, the only flat stage was really decided only in the sprint.
However, it did not bring the greatest joy to the biggest favorites, i.e. Kaden Groves or Wout van Aert, who had already given it away for a bonus of points in the green competition. In the end, the 21-year-old Czech competitor Pavel Bittner threw a pitchfork into their entire concept.
When Van Aert started from behind the back wheel of Groves, he had only one thing in his mind: Kaden must not pass me, I must make it to the finish line. Although the Australian did not defeat him, he was surprised by the Czech, whom he did not expect at all.
“I did what I had in mind. I started off the back wheel of Kaden but it was early. I felt someone coming, maybe I threw the bike towards the tape prematurely. It’s easy to make a mistake in that tension,” assessed the man in the green jersey at the finish line.
Bittner was already rejoicing and accepting congratulations. “Unbelievable feeling. I won my first victory among professionals a few days ago and now my first win at the Vuelta… I can’t believe it,” said the native of Olomouc, practically in a trance, but with a big smile.
Czech stage winners at the Vuelta
2024 Pavel Bittner 5th stage 2013 Leopold König 8th stage 2013 Zdeněk Štybar 7th stage 2001 Tomáš Konečný 16th stage 1997 Ján Svorada 11th, 16th, 17th stage
He did not forget to praise his teammates, who greatly helped him achieve this success. “If we look at the last year, we were able to build the starting train excellently, this team is working great. Beating Wout in such a long sprint is crazy,” Bittner blurted out at almost the same speed as he finished.
In his case, however, it is definitely not a coincidence, he has been showing quality in sprint finishes the entire time that the dsm-firm PostNL team called him from the development team to their team six months in advance. And now he has rewarded everyone for their trust.
“I said we could prove it today, that it’s open, and we did,” Bittner was pleased.
He also received congratulations from the defeated Belgian star. “He made good use of the opportunity, I also congratulated him on that. He flew at me quite quickly, it was a nice fight, but I lost and he deserves the victory,” acknowledged Van Aert.
Bittner is the first Czech in 11 years to win a stage at the Spanish Grand Tour. In 2013, they were Zdeněk Štybar and Leopold König. Until Wednesday, Jan Hirt celebrated the last Czech Grand Tour victory at the Giro d’Italia in 2022.
“I got a lot of questions about that, if I would ever win a stage as a Czech. But I didn’t see it that way. In any case, it would be great if Czech cycling got to the top,” Bittner wishes.
By the way, he could imitate Štybar in another respect as well. He still insists that he is not a pure sprinter. “I’ve never seen myself like that, more like a classicist,” recalled the competitor, whose goal is to win big classics like Paris-Roubaix or Milan-San Remo.
He currently has three professional wins to his credit, the first two came at the general stage before the Vuelta in the Tour of Burgos race, where he also dominated two sprints. He may be even more sorry that the time trial is ending in Spain this year. “Hmm, a mass finish in Madrid would be nice, unfortunately it turned out like this,” he thought even before the start in Portugal. Any finish in Madrid, if he gets there in his first Grand Tour, will be great for him. Now with a stage win in my pocket, definitely.
Vuelta cycling race – 5th stage (Fuente del Maestre – Seville, 177 km):
1. Bittner (ČR/dsm-firmenich-PostNL) 4:25:282. Van Aert (Belg./Visma-Lease a Bike), 3. Groves (Austr./Alpecin-Deceuninck), 4. Coquard (Fr./Cofidis), 5. Küng (Švýc./Groupama-FDJ), 6. Strong (N. Zel./Israel-Premier Tech), …31. M. Vacek (CZ/Lidl-Trek) all the same time.
Running order: 1. Roglič (Slovin./Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe) 18:58:36, 2. Almeida (Portugl./UAE Team Emirates) -8, 3. Mas (Šp./Movistar) -32, 4. Tiberi (It ./Bahrain Victorious) -38, 5. Van Eetvelt (Belg./Lotto-Dstny) -41, 6. Gall (Rak./Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) -47, …75. M. Vacek -9:56, 123. Bittner -16:38.
