A granite cobblestone, Neptune's trident retrieved from the sea, or an endless spiral adorned with gold. These are just some of the unique trophies awarded for triumphs in the world's most-watched cycling races. Starting this year, Czech Tour joins the ranks of races with original trophies, as stage winners and the overall champion will take home an imaginative gem from the workshop of architect and jeweller Oldřich Sládek.
"It's great when a trophy is connected to the race in a way that makes it immediately clear where the rider won it. I think we succeeded in the case of the Czech Tour trophy," commented Czech Tour Director Leopold König at the unveiling of the original artifacts.
The main trophy is an eight-kilogramme, approximately 36-centimetre-tall citrine glass crystal, whose base forms the shape of the Czech Republic. The individual trophies for the winners of each of the four stages then correspond to quarters of the main trophy. "The concept is based on four crystals that together form the shape of the republic. The winner of each stage receives a partial part, the overall winner then receives the large eight-kilogramme crystal," explains the trophy's creator, Oldřich Sládek.
The link between the trophy and the race is further enhanced by an original detail. At the top of each crystal is a small cavity beneath the cap, into which a specific artefact from each stage will be inserted, giving the trophy holders a truly lasting reminder of their achievement.
35 variants at the beginning
How did the idea for the trophy's motif come about? "The most important thing is to have a lot of ideas and then quickly abandon them so that you don't go down blind alleys and the trophy has as much to do with the race as possible. Then it's just a lot of work to draw and make it. In the case of the Czech Tour trophy, there were about thirty-five variants at the beginning," says Oldřich Sládek, whose portfolio includes medals for the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championship and the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, both held in the Czech Republic.
The concept of the trophy began to take shape last fall, and the final production took several months. "It starts with the production of a plastic model printed on a 3D printer, according to which a mould is made and then glass is melted into it. The whole process takes a long time, just in the melting furnace it lies at 850 degrees for a week. After cooling, the crystal is polished, metal parts are prepared, further surface treatments are carried out, and then the trophy is assembled," describes Oldřich Sládek.
Twice-dyed citrine gives the trophy a yellow tint, but the dichroic glass attractively changes shade under direct light. "The beauty of working with glass is that it takes a long time, and you don't know how it will turn out until the very end. There are various bubbles and cracks in the material that make each object unique. And that's the beauty of it, these little things, the “mistakes”, bring the work to life, make it real," explains Oldřich Sládek.
And what would make the trophy creator the happiest? "When a rider leaves the trophy on the shelf at home even after they finish their career," adds the graduate of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague with a smile.
Trophies are a great symbol in the cycling world. Perhaps the most famous is the granite cobblestone awarded to the winner of the famous Paris-Roubaix race, nicknamed the Hell of the North, which is defined by the hardships riders endure on the cobbled sectors. The trophy for the champion of the Giro d'Italia is often cited as the most beautiful. The Trofeo Senza Fine, the Endless Trophy, is a ten-kilogramme, 54 cm tall, 18-carat gold-decorated spiral winding upwards with the names of the winners of the famous pink race. Since 2010, the winner of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race has received Neptune's trident, which is symbolically raised from the sea by Italian Coast Guard divers before the start of the race. And for the past decade, the winner of the most famous race on the planet, the Tour de France, has received a hand-blown trophy weighing 5 kg and measuring 60 cm tall.
The Czech Tour is the largest and best-attended cycling race held in the Czech Republic since 2009. Thanks to its reputation as a beautiful and safe event, its popularity among stage cycling races in Europe is constantly growing and the goal of the current director Leopold König is to move the event as close as possible to the top category World Tour races in terms of organisation. At present, the race belongs to category 2.1 in the ranking of the International Cycling Union, and in 2026 it should jump to the ProSeries category and thus join the family of important stage and one-day events such as the Brabant Arrow, Tour of the Alps, Tour of Britain, Tour of Oman or Tour of Turkey, where the biggest stars of the world peloton regularly come.
Foto: Markéta Navrátilová
