News Round-up: Zdeněk Štybar set for retirement after difficult 2023 season

Plus the Giro d’Italia route announcement, a big name is out of the first Cyclo-Cross World Cup, and results from the Chinese WorldTour races

20:30, Friday 13th October 2023

Matilda Price

Racing News Editor

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Zdeněk Štybar has missed a lot of racing in 2023 due to iliac artery surgery

Zdeněk Štybar set for retirement after difficult 2023 season

Jayco-AlUla’s Zdeněk Štybar may be racing his final road race in Guangxi this week, after failing to secure a contract renewal after a difficult season.

Speaking to Cyclingnews at the Tour of Guangxi, Štybar expressed his sadness at finishing his career, and his last race being in China rather than Europe, though he did hint at doing some cyclo-cross, the discipline where he began his career.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t re-sign as there is no place on our team,” Štybar told Cyclingnews. “And then with the situation of the past weeks with such uncertainty about teams, I think this is probably my last race. Of course, my manager was still speaking to teams, but after all those surgeries, after my performances and my age, nobody is really interested.”

The 37-year-old has had a difficult season with Jayco-AlUla, not least because he underwent iliac artery surgery, derailing a big chunk of his racing.

A final outing in China is understandably a slightly lacklustre ending for the Czech rider, who has a long and successful career, including wins at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the E3 Saxo Classic, Strade Bianche and a stage of the Tour de France.

Men’s 2024 Giro d’Italia route revealed in Trento

The 2023 season isn’t quite over yet, but eyes are already firmly turning to 2024, with the route of the Giro d’Italia announced in Trento on Friday.

Starting in Gran Piemonte and finishing in Rome, the race will take in 63km of time trialling and 42,900m over its three-week, 3,321km course.

Successful Giro racers Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan, plus current pros Filippo Ganna and Jai Hindley, were on stage in Trento to help present the route, which looks set to provide some exciting and aggressive racing for the pink jersey next May.

The route for the women’s race was not revealed - only the new trophy - but details of that race are expected to follow in a separate presentation later this month.

For a full breakdown of the race and the key stages, read our in-depth look at the 2024 Giro d’Italia route.

Jonathan Milan sprints to Tour of Guangxi stage victory

Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) sprinted to victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Guangxi, taking a long-range head-bobbing sprint all the way to the line in Qinzhou.

The Italian, who was runner-up behind Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) on the opening-day sprint, found himself hitting out with nearly 250 metres to go once again, but this time was able to hold on to collect his third win of the season.

Arvid De Klejn (Tudor Pro Cycling) finished runner-up, as Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates) settled for the final spot on the podium.

Viviani was not in contention and so the leader’s jersey now passes to Milan.

"I wanted to finish well with this team," said the 23-year-old, who will leave for Lidl-Trek in 2024, and who’s been quiet since winning a stage and the points classification at the Giro d’Italia in May.

“From a mental point of view, it’s important to get this win. I was tired after the Worlds, so I took a break. Then I was able to train well and train in a calm way, and I was able to find some decent condition for the end of the season.”

Head over to the full report for a run-down of the stage and the results.

Hanna Tserakh takes surprise win at the Tour of Chongming Island

A perfectly-timed sprint after a late catch earned Hanna Tserakh (Li Ning Star Ladies) victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Chongming Island, as well as moving the rider from the local team into the race lead.

After catching Olga Zabelinskaya (Tashkent City Women Professional Cycling Team) with a kilometre to go, Li Ning Star Ladies led the way in the rain-soaked sprint, dropping Tserakh off at the right moment to allow her to outpower the more familiar names in the peloton.

Martina Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT) finished second, just shy of making it a back-to-back win for her team, whilst Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) took third, with daylight between her and the winner.

This is Tserakh’s first WorldTour win and first UCI win outside of Turkey, after a relatively quiet few years of racing for the Belarusian rider, who only moved to Chinese team Li Ning Star Ladies this summer.

Read the full report and results here.

Defending overall champion Laurens Sweeck to miss first Cyclo-cross World Cup

The UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup starts this weekend in Waterloo, USA but will be missing the men’s overall champion from 2022/23, Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon).

The 29-year-old was consistently successful during last year’s World Cup series, taking a handful of wins but crucially rarely finishing outside the top 10, which earnt him the overall title.

He is set to defend that title in the 2023/24 season, but his campaign is off to a less-than-ideal start, as he will miss the opening round in Waterloo. Sweeck picked up an injury in Exact Cross Beringen last weekend, and is not ready to return to racing this Sunday.

Sweeck’s absence should open up the competition over in the US, with the likes if Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek Lions) and Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) now likely favourites to take the victory this weekend.

In the women’s field, world champion and Beringen winner Fem van Empel (Jumbo-Visma) will be the rider to watch, whilst MTB stars Evie Richards and Jolanda Neff are also expected to make an appearance in the hometown of their Trek Factory team.