Stybar's knee improving

Zdenek Stybar's knee injury has shown signs of improvement and he has been building up his training hours. The world cyclo-cross champion is suffering from problems in his left knee which have kept him out of racing for about a month.

The Czech is in Mallorca, and on Friday was able to train for more than three hours. “Zdenek did well on his lighter training schedule the last few days, and is ready to take the next step,” his doctor, Vincent Van Belle, told sporza.be.

“He is working very carefully. Everything is going step-by-step and his knee is constantly controlled. We are taking no risks. Stybar himself is very optimistic.”

The 25-year-old is expected to return to racing between Christmas and New Year.

He dominated the early part of the cyclo-cross season, but the knee problems appeared in early November. Since then he has not won, and eventually stopped racing to rest his knee.