Petr Vakoč in the archive photo in the Alpecin-Fenix ​​team jersey.

Alpecin-Fenix ​​cycling team

“Wednesday’s one hundred and sixty-nine kilometers in the Giro del Veneto will be the highlight of my professional career in the road peloton. After careful consideration, I decided to take up the new challenges, ”he told the media.

“My road career has been an absolutely amazing journey, it has brought me many unique experiences and exceptional friendships that are sure to last. I have been part of two extremely successful teams, I have won great races. , I have participated in prestigious team victories, “Vakoč recapitulated his career in the teams of Dukla Prague, Deceuninck Quick Step and Alpecin Fenix.

In early 2018, he suffered serious injuries while concentrated in Africa. At that time, he had broken vertebrae, bruised lungs, and many other minor injuries. “I was lucky that the consequences of the accident were not fatal,” he admitted from a distance.

Back home, he resolutely launches into convalescence. His body was gripped by a special shell, but Vakoč was already turning his legs on a bicycle fixed perpendicular to the ground so that he did not completely lose muscle mass.

“It was my dream to get back not only to normal life but also to professional cycling and the Tour de France race. And with all my might I really managed to get back to the top,” recalls Vakoč from all the story.

At the end of 2019, he returned to the professional peloton during the races in China under the jersey of the Belgian team Deceuninck Quick Step, before moving to the Alpecin Fenix ​​formation, which houses the star Mathieu van der Poel.

And this year, with other partners, he completed the Tour de France, the biggest race in the world. “It was an incredible experience. We defended the yellow jersey, won two stages and I enjoyed every minute, every second,” Vakoč recalled with a smile.

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“But after the Tour de France, I realized in my free time that my body was giving me clear signals to slow down. It was nothing new, some signals that I didn’t know had lasted a long time,” he said. admitted.

Deciding on an end in the proipeloton was not easy for him. “My mind would push me to run. But I am satisfied with what I have accomplished. At the same time, the desire to embark on a new adventure,” said Vakoč, who has started the Tour de France twice and once the Italian Giro in his career, he also has twelve appearances in famous classics.

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His biggest victories are the triumph at Brabant Arrow in 2016 and the victory in the stage race of the Czech Cycling Tour a year earlier. “I’m not going to leave the world of cycling completely, I want to run a bit on the terrain where my career really started. But the main content of life will be elsewhere,” said Vakoč. “I will study psychology and nutrition. I want to pass on my experience of my professional career, ”said Vakoč before the last start in the professional peloton.