Deceuninck-QuickStep have extended Zdenek Stybar’s contract by a year as the Belgian WorldTour nears completion of its 2022 roster.
Mark Cavendish is set to stay with the team, with final details of a possible post-career role still to be finalised, while Sam Bennett has returned to Bora-Hansgrohe.
Deceuninck-QuickStep will be known as QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl in 2022, with Julian Alaphilippe, Remco Evenepoel, Kasper Asgreen and Fabio Jakobsen as team leaders. However, the team has not extended the contract of the USA's Ian Garrison, while João Almeida and Alvaro Hodeg have moved to UAE Team Emirates.
2022 will be Stybar’s 12th season with the team after a transition from cyclo-cross. He won Strade Bianche in 2015 and took stage wins at both the 2015 Tour de France and 2013 Vuelta a España.
In 2021 he underwent an ablation procedure performed to fix a heart rhythm problem discovered after Gent-Wevelgem but again completed a full season of racing.
Stybar will turn 36 in December but hopes to race until 2023.
“I don’t have a date when I will call it a day. Some moments you think it has been good, other moments not. I think I’ll always keep on biking," Stybar said in a team press release.
"When I’m not on my bike, I miss it. I made the transition to road cycling in 2013, so that’s not that long ago and I think that’s why I’ll be able to keep on going still for a bit. I’ll feel it when it has been enough, but that’s not the case yet.
"I’m really happy I can stay with the team. It will be my 12th year in the squad, that’s quite an achievement. I hope to end my career here in a couple of years. I’m so grateful, also because of the situation I was in.
"Last year I missed the Tour due to a knee problem, because of that I also wasn’t at my normal level in the Classics. Then I came back strong this year in E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem, but I had a heart rhythm problem. So it was a really difficult year. I had to build up from zero again."
Team manager Patrick Lefevere sees Stybar as an experienced mentor for the team, but also a rider who can get results.
"Zdenek is one of the most experienced riders in the peloton and an important member of our team, a real wolf who’s always giving his best for the squad," he said. "He also has a lot of quality, as evidenced by his victories, and we are confident he can still bring in strong results for the team next year."
