{"id":621929,"date":"2025-12-09T10:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621929\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T10:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:03:12","slug":"the-lows-of-cycling-are-way-way-worse-than-the-highs-of-winning-stevie-williams-simply-hopes-to-ride-again-pain-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621929\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The lows of cycling are way, way worse than the highs of winning’ \u2013 Stevie Williams simply hopes to ride again, pain-free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Williams\u2019 victory at last year\u2019s La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne<\/a> epitomised just how much adversity he can handle. Through freezing rain and a snow flurry, he had the reserves and punch to beat his remaining hardy rivals on the Mur de Huy. The biggest win of his career was part of a breakthrough 2024 year of six victories.<\/p>\n

The Welshman has been back in the eye of a different storm this season. He is suffering with quadriceps tendinopathy in his right knee, which flared up after his return from racing Australia\u2019s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in February. \u201cEverything was normal. A couple of days later, I woke up and had this sharp pain on the top of my patella. Nine months later, I\u2019m still in this battle,\u201d the NSN Cycling <\/a>rider tells Cycling Weekly.<\/p>\n

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The injury is inflammation of the tendon of the muscle that attaches to the top of the knee, connecting the vastus medialis and the vastus lateralis. It means Williams\u2019 tendon fibres are not strong enough to cope with the load of activity.<\/p>\n

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After a two-month break from competition, Williams soldiered on, but having \u201chardly trained\u201d, he failed to finish this year\u2019s Fl\u00e8che Wallonne. He has not raced since May 1 and has barely been able to cycle. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those injuries that\u2019s going to be seen in smaller steps rather than big changes over a few days,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old, who shines in punchy classics and one-week stage races, has struggled to string together consistent seasons so far in his career. As a new WorldTour pro with Bahrain-Merida in 2019 and 2020, his first seasons were severely truncated by a persistent tendon issue in his left knee<\/a>. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d go through something similar again. It\u2019s safe to say this one has been twice as hard,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n

The highs he enjoyed in 2024, including Tour Down Under<\/a> and Tour of Britain<\/a> triumphs, has made this setback even more difficult. \u201cIt was a great year in so many ways,\u201d he says. \u201cOne thing I will say is the lows of cycling are way, way worse than the highs of winning. It doesn\u2019t come close. Winning is the greatest thing, it\u2019s beautiful. But when you\u2019re injured, off the bike, it\u2019s absolutely devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrustration is the key word. Any injury is hard to deal with for an athlete, but the hardest one is soft tissue, ligament, tendon issues – and I\u2019ve had two. They\u2019re so difficult to manage. Even in the medical world, millions and millions [of pounds] is thrown into the study and knowledge of tendons, and they\u2019re still really unsure how they work and respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Watching his friends and teammates go training or racing without him, Williams\u2019 days consist of gym physiotherapy work. Having lost most of the muscle mass in his right quad after surgery in early September, he has been doing a lot of isometric, eccentric work, building up strength in his lower back, glutes and quads.<\/p>\n

Following surgery, he can ride for 30 minutes gently on a turbo trainer. \u201cI miss riding on the road, with the boys and being in a normal training cycle,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Williams paid tribute to the \u201cunbelievable\u201d support and patience shown to him by [what was] Israel-Premier Tech, working with him in his Andorra home, which is set to become a WorldTour team next year.<\/p>\n

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However, it will be with a different name as it was announced last month that the team is rebranding<\/a>, and will now be NSN Cycling. \u201cLike everyone knows, I think it\u2019s going to be a very different team. I think we\u2019re all excited for a new era,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n

His career goals remain the Ardennes Classics and a Tour de France<\/a> stage win. Whether he will be on the start lines of those races in 2026 is a big unknown. In the short-term, Williams hopes to be back on the road by Christmas and to conquer his injury. \u201cRight now, I don\u2019t care if I\u2019m flying on the bike, I just want to be pain free and healthy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of motivation to come back, I\u2019m fighting and working hard. Fingers crossed everything will fall into line soon. When my first knee injury happened six years ago, I thought my career was done \u2013 and it wasn\u2019t. The body can do some extraordinary things.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 27 November 2025.\u00a0<\/strong>Subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and never miss an issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Williams\u2019 victory at last year\u2019s La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne epitomised just how much adversity he can handle. Through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-621929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115689042979787503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}