Zdenek Stybar isn’t one of the top favourites for the Worlds Road Race, but if the course is selective, he has one of the fastest finishes from smaller groups, making him a more than credible winner candidate.

“I would prefer to surprise. Yeah, indeed, I think probably the top favorites I’m definitely not, but I think it’s a circuit that could suit me,” Stybar said at the joint Czech and Slovak press conference on Friday. “I think my condition is pretty OK, so it’s really just wait and see. I’d rather be the outsider than the favorite for the moment.”

But the Czech says he doesn’t know if the course will result in smaller group finishes, bunch gallops, or a solo attack prevailing.

“It’s really very difficult to predict how this race will go on. I think we’ll just have to see a little bit, and see what groups will go at the beginning of the race. Belgium have so many guys who could win, they can really play around. It will be, I think, really tough to control the end of the race.”

As an ex-Cyclocross World Champion, he has great technical skills, which will suit him on a course where the last 5km has cobbled climbs and tough corners.

“I think the circuit is pretty technical with the number of turns, so it’s definitely better to have the bike skills than not. But in the professional peloton it’s already a lot of guys with enough experience to handle their bikes, so I don’t think it will be against the big favorites any big advantage.”

Unlike Peter Sagan, Stybar has six other teammates to help him, which he thinks could make a huge difference coming into the final of a long race where rain is forecast.

“In the end, we are with seven here. I think we have a good team, with Peter Vakoc who was very strong in Tour of Britain, Roman Kreuziger who was also going really good on the end of the season now. And also [Jan] Barta, he is strong, so I think we have a really good team if it will be necessary that we can work something out.”