In 2016, the Czech became the only rider ever to win both the Ardèche Classic and the Drôme Classic in the same season.
At the time, Petr was in fine form and proudly sporting the colours of Czech national champion, but in an interview for this site, our former rider admitted that even he was surprised to achieve the French double.
At the time, Petr was in fine form and proudly sporting the colours of Czech National Champion, but in an interview for this site, our former rider admitted that even he was surprised to achieve this impressive French double.
“We had spent nine days in France to do some other races where I had come close to winning, and I finished second in the general classification of the Tour de la Provence, so I knew my form was good. I also knew the races and that they would suit me well, so it felt like everything was starting to click together.
In Ardèche there was a sprint from a small group, after a really hard race. Something I was always good at was having a little bit extra after a race like that, so it was to my advantage in the final. And then the next day it was an active race. I like the final there with a short and steep climb, before a downhill to the finish, which I reached together with Jan Bakelants. I made a little mistake in the finale when I didn’t want to go in front too early, and the finishing straight was only 150 meters, but luckily there was enough time to overtake him after the last corner. It was an amazing weekend and being the only person to win both races in the same year is something that I am super proud of.
I had a combination of a good team, good form and confidence to do it.
At the same time, I also had some luck – there are times where I have had a similar shape and only finished fourth or a top 10. I made some mistakes in Provence or the race wouldn’t go my way on other days, but this time everything was perfect.
There is a super nice video on YouTube that somebody has made, with the best moment of my career, which includes those two races, Brabantse Pijl, my victory at the Tour of Britain and the one in the Tour de Pologne. I didn’t see the two wins until a few weeks ago when my younger brother was working on my website and he showed me a clip of those races and it gives me goosebumps to see it.
I am now back enjoying riding my bike again. A lot has changed since my accident in South Africa, but luckily, I didn’t have any lasting damage, apart from I don’t quite have the levels to repeat those two victories, but I could still have several nice seasons. This left me exhausted and I needed a change, so I switched to gravel racing. I always had in my mind that I wanted to race the Cape Epic, which I wanted to do for fun at first. But I enjoyed it so much that I have started to take it up full time. After a year of not enjoying cycling that much, I have fallen in love with it again.”
Photo credit: ©Etienne Garnier