Sylwester Szmyd

Sylwester Szmyd (born 2 March 1978) is a Polish former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI Professional Continental team CCC Development Team.[1] Born in Bydgoszcz, Szmyd is a climber who serves as a leader in smaller stage races, and as a strong mountain domestique for his team leaders in the Grand Tours; he has completed each of the 23 Grand Tours that he has started during his career.

Sylwester Szmyd
Personal information
Full nameSylwester Szmyd
Born (1978-03-02) 2 March 1978
Bydgoszcz, Poland
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight63 kg (139 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeClimber/Domestique
Professional teams
2002–2003Mercatone Uno
2004Saeco Macchine per Caffè
2005–2008Lampre–Caffita
2009–2012Liquigas
2013–2014Movistar Team
2015–2016CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice
Major wins
1 stage Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré (2009)

Professional career

In 2009, Szmyd scored the first victory of his career when he crossed the finish line atop the Mont Ventoux during the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. He had broken away with Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and the pair finished together. Szmyd said afterward that he was so used to sacrifice himself as a domestique for his captains that his legs almost buckled in the last corner when he realized he would win.[2]

In the 2012 Giro del Trentino, Szmyd was allowed to race for himself and placed well on the final two stages of the race, which were mountainous. In stage 3, he came in second place after tackling a very steep climb, the Punta Veleno (8.5 km (5.3 mi) at an average 15% gradient). The finish line was situated 1.5 km (0.93 mi) after the summit.[3] On the last stage to Passo Pordoi, Szmyd came in fourth position of the altitude finish, securing his third place in the overall classification. Snow was falling as race winner Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago–CSF Bardiani), Damiano Cunego (Lampre–ISD) and himself were accepting their awards on the podium.[4]

He participated in the Giro d'Italia a couple of weeks later, riding in support of his leader Ivan Basso. He set the pace for the lead group numerous times in the hilly stages and managed a 28th general classification spot.[5]

Szmyd left his team of four years Liquigas–Cannondale at the end of the 2012 season, and joined the Movistar Team on a two-year contract, from the 2013 season onwards.[6] In December 2014 Szmyd announced he was joining the Polish CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice team on a one-year deal for 2015, after expressing dissatisfaction about his time at Movistar, where he was only selected for a Grand Tour once during his two years with the team.[1]

Career achievements

Major results
2001
6th Overall Tour de Pologne
9th Gran Premio de Llodio
2002
3rd Due Giorni Marchigiana – GP Fred Mengoni
6th Schynberg-Rundfahrt
2003
8th Overall Giro del Trentino
2004
2nd GP Schwarzwald
4th Japan Cup
2005
7th GP Industria & Artigianato – Larciano
2006
5th Japan Cup
6th Overall Giro del Trentino
9th Overall Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
10th Overall Tour de Romandie
2007
2nd Overall Settimana Lombarda
7th Giro dell'Emilia
9th Overall Tour de Romandie
2008
5th Giro dell'Appennino
8th Overall Giro del Trentino
8th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
9th Overall Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
2009
1st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
7th Overall Tour de Pologne
2010
1st Stage 4 (TTT) Giro d'Italia
6th Overall Tour de Pologne
10th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné
2012
3rd Overall Giro del Trentino
7th Overall Tour de Romandie
2013
9th Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid
2014
3rd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León

Grand Tour general classification results timeline
Grand Tour 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Giro d'Italia 44 24 43 64 19 28 23 43 60 82 28 — — 45
Tour de France — — — — — — 27 — 61 42 71 — — —
Vuelta a España 29 — 74 24 14 25 — 17 — — — 45 — —
Legend
— Did not compete
DNF Did not finish
gollark: It is annoying and ambiguous because precedence.
gollark: Infix is ambiguous and hard.
gollark: Solution: standardize unambiguous and easy to parse/write notation then make IDEs display parse trees?
gollark: Haskell doesn't cause eyebleeds for me, although it does sometimes cause neurological oddness.
gollark: Me when I read C code: <:rust_code:747529842999689298>.

References
  1. Gadzała, Paweł (20 December 2014). "Sylwester Szmyd joins CCC Polsat Polkowice". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  2. Jean-François Quénet (12 June 2009). "Szmyd takes his first win in Dauphiné stage five". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  3. Daniel Benson (19 April 2012). "Pozzovivo prevails in Brenzone". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  4. "Pozzovivo wins 2012 Giro del Trentino". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 20 April 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  5. "Giro d'Italia 2012 stage 21 results". Velo News. 2012 Competitor Group, Inc. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  6. Atkins, Ben (11 August 2012). "Eros Capecchi and Sylwester Szmyd quit Liquigas-Cannondale for Movistar". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
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