Marco Henderson

A MASSEUR TO START AT ELITE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 🌈 Yes, you read that correctly… Slovakia will have a rider at the start of the men’s Elite road race at the World Championships in Montreal, but it won’t be Lukáš Kubiš, Martin Svrček or Matthias Schwarzbacher. It will be Vladimír Kováčik, a 28-year-old former cyclist who is now working as a masseur for the Slovak national team. And this is not a joke. It is actually happening. But why? Slovakia originally had the right to start up to four riders, but one by one, the options disappeared. Schwarzbacher had to withdraw after surgery, Kubiš was not released by his team because of their racing programme, and Svrček was ruled out last minute because of health problems. Suddenly, Slovakia was facing the possibility of having nobody on the start line. And that would cause a big problem. If Slovakia had no rider in the Elite World Championships road race, the country’s national championship would drop into the B category next season, resulting in a significant loss of UCI points. According to national team coach Jakub Vančo, the loss could be measured in hundreds of points which could be extremely important for the upcoming LA 2028 Olympics qualification. So Slovakia needed somebody to start and the federation found the best and the fastest solution possible: the masseur. Now, instead of preparing the riders for the World Championships, he will put on a race number himself and line up alongside the best cyclists in the world. And for the info in Slovakia, we understand this situation completely. We had many youngsters who rode the U23 which resulted in the rainbow jersey of Chladoňová and the TOP10 of Riška and many health problems among our Elite riders caused this specific situation. So let’s cheer for Vladimír so he can enjoy this moment. #Montreal2026