Rado was born in Liptovsky Mikulas, a city near High Tatras. It was therefore no surprise that he started as a downhill skier, but during summer preparations he fell in love with his mountain bike and as his results on skis were not the best, to put it mildly (DNF in 80% of races – he was always very nervous and too often missed a gate), he switched to a bike rather quickly. And as he loved high speeds, he knew he could not achieve that on a mountain bike, so he switched again, but this time to a road bike.
After a few amateur races in Slovakia where downhill played an important role, he caught attention of manager Pierre Mrazique from Lokomotíva because he was winning almost all of the races. So initially Mr. Mrazique took him as a downhill guide for the team, but after he started properly training, it became clear that Lokomotíva had found an amazing talent.
Rado was not on...
Read moreRado was born in Liptovsky Mikulas, a city near High Tatras. It was therefore no surprise that he started as a downhill skier, but during summer preparations he fell in love with his mountain bike and as his results on skis were not the best, to put it mildly (DNF in 80% of races – he was always very nervous and too often missed a gate), he switched to a bike rather quickly. And as he loved high speeds, he knew he could not achieve that on a mountain bike, so he switched again, but this time to a road bike.
After a few amateur races in Slovakia where downhill played an important role, he caught attention of manager Pierre Mrazique from Lokomotíva because he was winning almost all of the races. So initially Mr. Mrazique took him as a downhill guide for the team, but after he started properly training, it became clear that Lokomotíva had found an amazing talent.
Rado was not only a good downhiller, but he also often managed to stay in leading groups in the mountains, and – that was very special about him – he was fond of riding against the wind, and thus had no problem in time trials: and so a new captain was selected, after legends such as Kazimir Cierny, Ondrej Moravcik and Drahomir Slovak. Luckily for Rado, he came to Lokomotíva during the era of “the golden generation”, that consisted of great all-round riders who supported each other all the time. But Rado still managed to shine among them as the first “red rider” in the history of Lokomotíva – his average skill value was an amazing 56. So boosted by the golden generation Rado achieved all this:
- Winner of Norway Tour GC, Tian-Shen Stone City Cup, Odyssey of the Oryx SC
Winner of Jirisan Jostle (2nd division) and Doe Khau Pha có hai (2nd division), was 3rd in Vuelta a Valparaíso (2nd division).
- Scored 3061 points, that is 11th place in the all-time ranking for Slovakia.
- Earned Lokomotíva 455 000 coins.
- Won OCM award as The Best Rider Outside Top Division (season 56), was 2nd for The Eliás Márquez Trophy for Best Tour Rider (the same season).
- The first winner of Best Rider of the Season category in Patriotic Union (season 56) and was still 7th in Most Succesful Riders category in Patriotic Union as of season 62.
- On May 30th 2021 (season 57) Rado was 9th in the world in number of points scored.
Rado was also very active and helpful in the national team of Slovakia:
- Winner of Classica Verona (WT B), was 2nd in Villavicencio – Bogota (WT B), and 3rd in Tabor GrandPrix (WT B).
- Scored 520 points for Slovakia which ranked him as 10th in Slovakia and 172nd in the world (as of season 63).
- 2nd in Slovakia with 4 podium placements, 15th in the world.
- 10th in Slovakia in top-9 positions, 25th in the world.
After his retirement, which is scheduled on 4th anniversary of the signing of his contract (December 27th), he is planning to stay with Lokomotíva as a trainer and, according to Pierre Mrazique, he will be gladly welcomed as an expert on windy and flat races.
Everybody at Lokomotíva would like to thank Rado for great memories, and a lot of excitement he brought to the fans. The most memorable being the dominant win in Norway, probably never to be repeated again by anybody from Lokomotíva.
Slovakia