Double Paralympic Champion, UCI World Champion and UCI World Cup Champion: after a year of back-to-back successes, is there anything more Slovakian para-cyclist Jozef Metelka could possibly wish for?
Well… yes actually.
The unstoppable athlete has his eyes set on the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot. We’re talking about a cyclist with one leg (Metelka had his left leg amputated after a motorbike accident in 2009) racing the world’s best able-bodied professional cyclists.
You only have to look at his results from 2016 to understand that there is nothing outrageous about this wish.
At the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari (Italy) Metelka qualified for the 4km individual pursuit final in a time of 4:26.924. Not only was it a para-cycling world record for the C4 sports class, it was a time that would hold its own in any international Elite competition.
“Montichiari would have to be the highlight of my season,” says the British-based Slovakian who went on to win the final and claim the world title. “I proved I’m worthy of Elite competition, not only with other para-cyclists but with everyone. I produced a really good time.”
So to recap the season: Jozef Metelka dominated the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup with five victories in six races, he became UCI World Champion in the 4km individual pursuit, and Paralympic Champion in both the 4km individual pursuit and road time trial.
Only in the 1km time trial on the track has he had to make do with silver: at both the UCI World Championships and Rio 2016, he finished second to Great Britain’s Jody Cundy.
“Jody Cundy is a human rocket,” declares Metelka. “In Rio I was aiming for silver in the kilo. I wouldn’t call that defeatist but rather management of expectations. I was happy with silver.”
The UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships were in March, six months before the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Meanwhile the Road World Cup ran from May through until July. A long season with multiple objectives. The 30-year-old athlete explains:
“You’re riding a very fine line when you have to peak more than once in a season. If you push too much you go over that line."
"Fortunately I didn’t overdo it and everything went well. Putting goals down on paper looks easy, but the easier it looks, the harder the work behind it. People don’t realise the hours, the kilometres and the intensity that we put in.”
We’re talking about someone who puts in between 3000km and 3500km a month at the beginning of the season, and who is capable of covering 160km on the track in just one day. That is a lot of laps of a 250km track.
“Even if I’m alone, I don’t get bored. I am always trying to hold one line to perfection. Even when I ride thousands of laps there is something new. And if I do get bored I go the other way….”
It is that kind of mentality that could just see this para-cyclist pierce into the world of able-bodied cycling. And it’s not just for his personal satisfaction: “It’s not about me, or England or Slovakia. My big dream is to bring cycling and para-cycling closer together, and to change people’s perception of para-cycling. We are also Elite athletes.”
He recognises that the 2017 Track Cycling World Championships are a long shot. Focusing on his Paralympic campaign this year, he was not looking to earn qualification points for next year’s Elite worlds.
He therefore jumped at the chance when offered a starting spot at the opening round of the Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow at the beginning of November.
“I had been on holiday since Rio because I really needed a break. Then my coach rang me while I was in Spain and told me to get back on my bike because I could compete in Glasgow.
“So basically I turned up there with just one week of training. I came 14th but I think if I had had two weeks’ training, I would have gone under 4:30 and made the top-10.”
Qualification is a campaign that he will not give up easily. Whatever happens, he won’t sit still. It’s just not part of his lifestyle. Skiing, mountain biking and playing tennis from a young age, Metelka is a qualified ski instructor, has also dabbled in basketball and recently discovered paddle boarding which he has introduced into his training for core stability. He calls himself a cyclist simply “because that is a major part of what I do at the moment.”
But he won’t be pinned down any further. Asked if he is a road cyclist or a track cyclist he hesitates for a long time.
“That is very difficult. I like to race on anything that has two wheels. If there is cross-country Olympic or downhill mountain biking at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics I would love it.”