South African Stefan de Bod feels fully restored and ready to tackle this week’s UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, UK, after taking some time off the bike due to health issues.
The 22-year-old Dimension Data rider said three weeks ago he was struggling with his health and was forced to withdraw from the national team who competed at the African Games in Morocco.
“I had a week completely off the bike here in Stellenbosch and could spend time with my family. Since then I’ve been training really hard for world champs and also for Tour of China in October.”
Stefan de Bod feels ready to tackle the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, UK, after taking some time off the bike due to health issues. Photo: Supplied
He added that he had spent a month training specifically for worlds.
“I also changed my time-trial bike set-up slightly to see if I can go faster. I’ve been doing some gym work as I’ve lost a lot of weight and power for the short punchy climbs in Yorkshire.”
De Bod, who placed eighth in the individual time-trial and 18th in the road race at last year’s U23 worlds in Austria, said this would be his first year as an elite at the event.
“It is a 285km race on a course that doesn’t really suit me, but world champs is world champs and it’s one of the best ways to learn and test my limits against the best,” said De Bod, who claimed gold in the time-trial at this year’s African Road Championships.
De Bod will compete in the 54km individual time-trial on the 25th and the road race on the 29th.
“I haven’t really thought about strategies at all. We need to approach the race as a professional team and play our best cards on the day.
“Daryl [Impey] would be the obvious choice to ride for on a course like that to get a big result.”
He added that due to this being his first elite worlds he had realistic personal goals and looked forward to gaining a lot of experience for the future.
“I want to give it absolutely everything in the time-trial though to see where I finish and work on it for future goals.
“As I said the road race doesn’t suit me so I’d be happy to help Daryl out on the day and race hard.”
De Bod said he had competed in a few races in the pro peloton this year and gained valuable experience at each one.
“I hope to get the same at worlds. I also want to see if the racing is different when everyone is competing with their national team.”
He added that it was every cyclist’s dream to become a world champion.
“If you don’t try you can’t become world champion. I might still be far from becoming one, but I’ll keep trying with every opportunity I get.”
