From the massage table to emergency World Championship start - Slovakia throw team masseur into elite road race in desperate bid to save LA 2028 hopes
CyclingSunday, 27 September 2026 at 19:00
Nine years after his last recorded race, Vladimír Kováčik is back on a start line in extraordinary circumstances. The 28-year-old has gone from working behind the scenes with the Slovak national team to lining up alongside Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel and Isaac del Toro in the elite men's road race at the 2026 World Championships.
Kováčik travelled to Montréal as part of Slovakia's support staff, working as a masseur. By Sunday morning, however, a succession of withdrawals had left the country without any of the riders originally expected to take part.
Matthias Schwarzbacher was unavailable following surgery, Martin Svrcek was ruled out because of health problems and national champion Lukas Kubis was not released by Unibet Rose Rockets because of his existing race programme.
Slovakia had qualified four places for the elite men's road race, but with the World Championships entry deadline having already passed on September 11, finding another replacement was no longer a straightforward option.
Kováčik was already in Canada, still held the necessary licence and had previous racing experience. That combination was enough to produce one of the most unusual starts of the entire World Championships.
His return to competition could hardly have come in a tougher setting either. The men's road race covers more than 270 kilometres and around 3,800 metres of climbing, with 12 laps of the demanding Mont-Royal circuit waiting in the closing part of the race.
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Why Slovakia needed someone on the start line
The decision was about far more than simply making sure Slovakia had a name on the start sheet. Had the country failed to field a rider in the elite men's road race, its national championship risked being downgraded to UCI category B the following season. That would reduce the number of ranking points available to Slovak riders at a particularly important time, with qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games moving closer.
National coach Jakub Vančo warned that the consequences could run into the hundreds of UCI points. “Those points equal winning a WorldTour stage race, which is beyond our capabilities,” Vančo explained when outlining why Slovakia were determined to maintain elite representation in Montréal.
Kováčik does at least have a racing background. He competed during the middle of the last decade and spent 2016 with continental team Dukla Banská Bystrica, appearing in races including the Carpathian Couriers Race, Tour of South Bohemia and the Slovak national championships. His recorded racing career ended in 2017.
That nine-year gap makes Sunday's assignment all the more remarkable. Kováčik has gone from preparing riders for the World Championships to pinning on a number himself and taking his place in the same peloton as the biggest names in the sport.
“Our participation will only be formal,” Vanco admitted. “We will have representation in the form of a person who is here and formally meets the conditions and licences.”
There is no expectation that Kováčik will suddenly become part of the sporting contest for the rainbow jersey. His presence serves a very different purpose. For Slovakia, getting one rider onto the World Championships start line protects something much more valuable than Sunday's result alone: the ranking position and future opportunities of the riders who will be targeting Los Angeles 2028.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Amazing, I don’t know how he did it and I don’t think anyone will forget this race.Mistermaumau27-09-2026
- This race is weird. The big guns take it in turn attacking, catch McNulty, then it’s as if they’ve been told to let him go again.anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
- For the love of God, this race is making me lose my sh**.anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
- This race is making me pull my hair out. They bring back McNulty, see him in their sights, then refuse to work together, and then let the gap grow again. They’re literally free wheeling? I’m not one to speculate, but… what is going on?anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
- I dunno but where the heck did MP come from, did he sit out a lap?Mistermaumau27-09-2026
- Remco?! What on earth is happening on the road today?! Blimey.anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
- I can’t understand Seixas either, he’s kept his head down and done very little. Remco, too. He looks unwell one second, then kicks out an astounding effort to bring himself back to the chasing group.anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
- I will say it now before a winner is declared, no matter all the predictions and comparisons, almost any and all of these guys would have fully deserved to win and many of them could have in slightly different scenarios.Mistermaumau27-09-2026
- This is like musical chairs. I think I was wrong about Seixas, has he just been quietly pacing all day letting others tire themselves out?Mistermaumau27-09-2026
- Jesus, this race ending is keeping me on the edge of my seat. Fair play to Pidcock for taking the responsibility for this chase. Every time he goes to the front, time is shaved off McNulty’s gap.anonymouscyclist27-09-2026
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