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
Cycling
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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- many people advise him to grow slowly and rather do giro and/or vuelta instead of tdf. but i can totally understand that he is not satisfied with taking over once pogi declines, but instead beat him in his prime. so if he goes for tdf again, i‘m all for it. let‘s hope that pogi recovers soon!Ketterechts07-11-2026
- So gracious to offer something no-one would be prepared to pay for. The Giro is not the Tour and doesn’t command the same interest or attract the same “elite” (those willing to pay to be a part of something they consider has ego boosting potential). Roadside viewing will always largely remain free for everyone outside circuits. Introduction of a symbolic entrance to mountain climbs is worthy of exploration. Asking 1-2€ isn’t going to repulse real fans (most will spend 50-100€ on their outing that day all things included) but will prevent a portion of the total knobhead thrillseekers who will join in any large gathering as long as it’s free, just because they’re attracted to crowds, without which it it difficult for them to work up their anti-social behaviour.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- How is radio going to help when someone went over a cliff or bridge or off the roadside into a forest unnoticed and is laying there unconscious?Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- Yeah man...PogiSloFans07-11-2026
- any rider less than 25 whether they are really ready for the position of leadership of GT is probably not the case. I think Pogi himself suffered when he was defeated by Jonas in the TDF twice. But that would be the team's job to ensure support so that they can bounce back. It requires a team and time to get back up and win after getting knocked down.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I'm very glad he got the big late Quickstep Vuelta win and I hope he has a few left for Euskaltel-Euskadi.flyer07-11-2026
- My memories of Ivan Basso aren't good but I liked his sister Elisa ok.flyer07-11-2026
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