Slovakia's little big hero has returned home: Vladimir Kovačík is the masseur-cyclist who saved his country and the points for Los Angeles 2028 by taking the start line at the elite world championship, thus guaranteeing his country's participation and avoiding a demotion in terms of national championship points, which could have had serious consequences.

Let's recall the reasons for the situation: the national coach Jakub Vančo had called up for the worlds Schwarzbacher, who got injured, Svrcek who was struck by a virus, and Kubis who did not receive clearance from his club team, Unibet Rose Rockets (meanwhile, with a 7th place at the Flandrien Classic on September 19th and 30th at the Gp Isbergues on the 20th, he really couldn't go to Canada?). Left without callable riders after the established deadlines, coach Vančo was forced to ask for help from his masseur, a former rider up to the Under 23 category, still regularly registered.

Kovačík put on the national jersey, took the start line and stayed with the group until the race exploded on the Montreal circuit. Upon returning home, he was a guest on Slovak TV JOJ and told his experience: "When they told me I would race, I felt like smiling, but the closer the race got, the more stressed I felt. I couldn't even open my phone or social media, because every time I opened Instagram, my photo was everywhere, and I'm really not used to this".

The emotions were a real crescendo: "When I got on the podium, I was so stressed that I couldn't even find my number to sign. But after all the interviews and once the race started, fortunately it went better. Our coach Jakub Vančo told me to enjoy it, personally I wanted to test myself and see how many kilometers I could hold on for".

Then the race report: "In the first 15–20 km I tried to stay at the back, then I even moved up a bit into the first third. I was happy to be able to stay with the group at an average speed of 47 km/h until we arrived on the Montreal circuit and crossed the finish line. Some of the greatest champions in the world even came up to me during the race, shook my hand and said beautiful words to me. It was wonderful. I only got home today, but tomorrow I'm going to the European Championships, this time really just as a masseur".