Discovering Limits and Limitations (The Modern Training Approach of Vojtěch Hačecký)

Discovering Limits and Limitations. A new season, a new mentor, and above all, a new approach. This year’s training column will be guided by Vojtěch Hačecký, who has been a retired cyclist since last autumn. Immediately after taking off his professional jersey, he put on the coach’s cap and took over responsibility for sports physiological testing and the subsequent interpretation of results for athletes and their coaches at the Center for Sports Medicine.

It was quite a shock for me back then. I had been riding a bike for a long time—since 2000—and I had managed to put together some results as well.

For example, a world championship medal in track madison with Martin Bláha. At one point, I was even supposed to go for testing with Quick-Step, but the day before departure, I got hit by a car. Bad luck. I also negotiated with the WorldTour team Milram for a long time—the contract talks went on until December—but in the end, I never made it to the pros.

I have no regrets

Discovering Limits and LimitationsA new season, a new mentor, and above all, a new approach. This year’s training column will be guided by Vojtěch Hačecký, who retired from cycling last autumn. As soon as he took off his professional jersey, he put on a coach’s cap and took responsibility for physiological testing and interpreting the results for athletes and their coaches at the Center for Sports Medicine.

It was quite a shock for me back then. I had been riding since 2000 and had managed to put together some results.

Like a world championship medal in track madison with Martin Bláha. At one point, I was even supposed to go for testing with Quick-Step, but a day before leaving, I got hit by a car. Bad luck. I also negotiated with the WorldTour team Milram for a long time—we were still discussing the contract in December—but in the end, I didn’t make it to the pros.

I have no regrets.

I never did cycling primarily for results or money—I enjoyed the camaraderie and the journey, the self-discovery, understanding my body. I’m a reflective person, and I realized I knew very little about myself. From 2009, I started coaching myself because I wanted to improve and earn a contract. And… of course, I messed it up. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough, which is one of the basic mistakes many people repeat. They want too much and overdo it. But it was a valuable experience.

I’m most proud of a spring in Aigle, at the UCI training center in Switzerland, when I was racing in the U23 category. In one week, I placed sixth in the amateur Tour of Flanders, eighth in another one-day race, and second at the ZLM Tour—won by Luke Rowe, with Degenkolb finishing behind me, Viviani in fourth, and Phinney in fifth. No one else made the top ten three times. Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything. And I never reached that performance level again.