Polish cyclist

Sylwester Szmyd (born 2 March 1978) is a Polish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016.

Born in Bydgoszcz, Szmyd competed as a climber who served as a leader in smaller stage races, and as a strong mountain domestique for his team leaders in the Grand Tours. He completed all of the 23 Grand Tours that he started during his career.

Contents

• 1 Professional career
• 2 Major results
  • 2.1 Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline
• 3 References
• 4 External links

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.

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 kilometres (5.3 miles) at an average 15% gradient). The finish line was situated 1.5:km (0.93:mi) after the summit. On the last stage to the Pordoi P*, Szmyd finished in fourth position at the al*ude finish, securing his third place in the overall cl*ification. Snow was falling as he, race winner Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago–CSF Bardiani) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre–ISD) were accepting their awards on the podium.

He participated in the Giro d'Italia a couple of weeks later, riding in support of his leader Ivan B*o. He set the pace for the lead group numerous times in the hilly stages and managed a 28th general cl*ification spot.

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. 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.

Major results

19994th Overall Ronde de l'Isard20002nd GP Capodarco20016th Overall Tour de Pologne9th Gran Premio de Llodio20023rd Gran Premio Fred Mengoni6th Schynberg-Rundfahrt20038th Overall Giro del Trentino20042nd GP Triberg-Schwarzwald4th *an Cup20057th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano20065th *an Cup6th Overall Giro del Trentino9th Overall Settimana InterNational Socialist German Workers' Partyonale di Coppi e Bartali10th Overall Tour de Romandie20072nd Overall Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda7th Giro dell'Emilia9th Overall Tour de Romandie20085th Giro dell'Appennino8th Overall Giro del Trentino8th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré9th Overall Settimana InterNational Socialist German Workers' Partyonale di Coppi e Bartali20091st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré7th Overall Tour de Pologne20101st Stage 4 (TTT) Giro d'Italia6th Overall Tour de Pologne10th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné20123rd Overall Giro del Trentino7th Overall Tour de Romandie20139th Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid20143rd Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León20153rd Overall Tour of Croatia

Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline

References

External links

• Profile on official Team Liquigas website
• Sylwester Szmyd at Cycling Archives
• Sylwester Szmyd at ProCyclingStats
• Sylwester Szmyd at Cycling Quotient
• Sylwester Szmyd at CycleBase
• Sylwester Szmyd at Olympedia