Drahomír Slovák was born in Telgárt under Králova Hola Mountain (the only “hors catégorie“ climb in Slovakia), where he fell in love with it as a child, climbing it every day after school on his mountain bike, even in bad and windy weather. His father saw his passion for cycling and gave a tip to a cycling coach from Zvolen, who was his friend. So Drahomír was soon riding for a professional team, where he clearly showed his potential to become a world class road race climber, never seen before in the country under High Tatras, even though he was born just as a Very Good climber. And so, it was of no surprise that Drahomír became the 3rd captain in Lokomotíva's history for mountain races, and it sure proved that 3rd time is the charm.
Drahomír's passion for solo riding made him a better time trialist than most of the other tour riders, and he was also not afraid of wind. And ...
Read moreDrahomír Slovák was born in Telgárt under Králova Hola Mountain (the only “hors catégorie“ climb in Slovakia), where he fell in love with it as a child, climbing it every day after school on his mountain bike, even in bad and windy weather. His father saw his passion for cycling and gave a tip to a cycling coach from Zvolen, who was his friend. So Drahomír was soon riding for a professional team, where he clearly showed his potential to become a world class road race climber, never seen before in the country under High Tatras, even though he was born just as a Very Good climber. And so, it was of no surprise that Drahomír became the 3rd captain in Lokomotíva's history for mountain races, and it sure proved that 3rd time is the charm.
Drahomír's passion for solo riding made him a better time trialist than most of the other tour riders, and he was also not afraid of wind. And this proved to be particularly important, especially in the Namibian tour Odyssey of the Oryx. With that, let's start with his list of his achievements:
- Drahomír is a member of the Kenny Haakon List (72 – 24 – 27 – 11 – 10).
- He has produced 1/3 of all results that riders of Lokomotíva have ever produced.
- Until January 13th 2021 he was a member of a list of 20 riders with biggest palmares (6 jerseys, 1 trophy).
- Drahomír won the General Classification at Norway Tour, which is the biggest achievement of his career.
- He is a winner of Monte Rosa Tour General Classification.
- He is a 3-times winner of Odyssey of the Oryx – as of season 56 he was the most successful rider of this tour.
- He also won a sprinter's jersey from this Namibian tour.
- Drahomír won Bali Classic.
- He is currently ranked 6th in historical rankings for Slovak riders (3366 points) and is the highest scoring Slovak rider in any Slovak team ever.
- At the end of season 48 he reached the highest individual ranking in his career – 198th place.
- Drahomír earned Lokomotíva 649 250 $, which is circa 50 000 per season – in an era without sponsors he was an irreplaceable asset for the team.
- Wearing the national jersey, he has ridden 17 times. He has attended 2 Clashes of Nations and has got two top 9 placements: 1x 7th, and 1x podium – 2nd.
After Drahomír retired, the team manager Pierre Mrazique said he has never had so much fun as during the era of Drahomír. The team was finally able to compete for the highest positions. He also expressed his regret that Drahomír has never won Tour of the Sanreizan, even though he was very well suited for that – he had awful bad luck with off-days and mechanicals. And it was remarkably similar with The Race of the Minutemen. Mr. Mrazique felt Drahomír deserved to be in those lists of winners at least once in each of them. And then there were all the second places, and few seconds away from winning jerseys, so Drahomír could have won a lot more palmares. But then Mr. Mrazique added that he was incredibly happy Drahomír made history as the first 3-times winner of Odyssey.
Drahomír remains in the team as a trainer, but kept his promise, and went to live on the continent where he got his greatest achievements – Africa – so since then Lokomotíva has had their training camp based in Namibia.