Thanassis Dadakos (Aiani,1 August 1979) is a former Greek Time Trialist.
Thanassis was born in the small village of Aiani in Greece, where he grew up with his older brother Giotgos on a small goat farm which his parents owned. by the time Thanassis was 16 and Giotgos was 23, a bored entrepeneur in the nearby town of Grevena started a team (roadrunners 2011), and Giotgos imeadeatly joined. He tried to convince Thanassis to join too, but without succes, becaus Thanassis had to go to school everyday, and besides, he didn't want to have to to anything with cycling, as he had to go to school everyday with his bike, and because he was always late, he had to rush all the time.
Some time passed, Thanassis graduated high school but flunked out of college, and winded up delivering goat cheese from his dad's company on his bike, ironically. Giotgos' team had left the peloton long ago, and i...
Read moreThanassis Dadakos (Aiani,1 August 1979) is a former Greek Time Trialist.
Thanassis was born in the small village of Aiani in Greece, where he grew up with his older brother Giotgos on a small goat farm which his parents owned. by the time Thanassis was 16 and Giotgos was 23, a bored entrepeneur in the nearby town of Grevena started a team (roadrunners 2011), and Giotgos imeadeatly joined. He tried to convince Thanassis to join too, but without succes, becaus Thanassis had to go to school everyday, and besides, he didn't want to have to to anything with cycling, as he had to go to school everyday with his bike, and because he was always late, he had to rush all the time.
Some time passed, Thanassis graduated high school but flunked out of college, and winded up delivering goat cheese from his dad's company on his bike, ironically. Giotgos' team had left the peloton long ago, and it seemed there was no future in cycling for any of the Dadakos children, this with approval of their dad, who thought it was the responsibility of every Dadakos man to work with cheese, instead of "riding one of those pesky iron surrogates for a goat you crazy kids call a bike", as he'd like to say it. This was, untill the summer of 2012.
It was a hot summer afternoon, and Thanassis was on his way to a customer, hurrying, as he was late. His thoughts were at another place, wandering. He was moping that he had to hurry again, and he was regretting the choice he made to quit college. If he wouldn't have been so lazy, he might have still been there, with all of his friends, lots of student party's, and of course, Mia... Mia was the best girl he'd ever met, and it was also her fault he flunked: she was too distracting. But Thanassis couldn't blame himself, after all, who could resist those hot summer nights where he and Mia...
WATCH IT!!
He avoided crashing into a tourist with a crazy manoeuvre. He was just able to keep his bike away from the ravine on his right hand. His heart was pounding, but he quickly got himself together. He had to deliver cheese. He regained speed quickly, a little ashamed that his mind drifted of like that. The tourist was left behind startled, not only by his almost-death-experience, but also by the skill of Thanassis. And that tourist was no one less than Morten Rytgaard, manager of the Danish team Mortenryt. So when he returned to his hotel a few minutes later, and he saw a familiar guy arguing with the hotel owner, he knew what he had to do. Not even a month later, Thanassis finished 96th in Hammerlock-Herzberg, his first race.
His first result was a 3rd place in Londen TT, in his second season as a professional. He was victorious only two weeks later in the Porto ITT, the ninth stage in the Volta. He stayed at Mortenryt untill season 24, when he moved to Jonas Pro Cycling. During his stay at Mortenryt, he has won 13 races, 36 results, and he was the overall number number 7 of the world in season 21.
Season 24 was a disappointment untill day 89, because he had only competed in 9 races so far and he had not finished higher than the 16th place, which was ashaming because mortenryt had relegated to the 8th division. However, day 89 was good enough to make up for the whole season. A bitter fight in the streets of Bratislava was fought that day. It was obvious that Peter Nørskov was the best Time Trialist at that time, and his time was not going to be beaten, but there was a heated battle for the other stages on the podium, fought between as many as 5 riders: Ilkka Hovi,Caary Heckert, Vaneli Munir, Peter Tuyp and Thanassis Dadakos. Thanassis beated Ilkka by only two seconds, leading to the biggest achievement in his career: the second place in the World Championships ITT.
His further stay at Jonas Pro Cycling wasn't exactly the best. He finished 4th and 8th in the WC of season 25 and 26, but after that there were only 3 results. He left Jonas Pro Cycling halfway season 30 for Carnap Kickers, where he competed in 5 races in division 5 and 6, his best result being a 4th place in Herceg Novi ITT. He left the team before the season was over, and took a break from cycling, lasting half a season, in which he got back to Greece and married his childhood crush Mia.
Mia encouraged him to go cycling again, and so he did, he joined Pro Cycling Manager, his first team outside Denmark, who where competing in the 7th and 8th division at that time. Even though he had found the spirit to go on, the results (a 7th, 8th and 9th place) weren't what he expected. His age was catching up with him, and after only 4 races he left the team.
He was unsure about continuing cycling, but at last he decided that he'd give it one more shot at the Tashkent Browncoats, a relitavely new team, competing in the second lowest division, the 10th. It turned out to be a good decision. With two results in his first season, he did not reach his goals, but he got his team to the 8th division, and he was eager to ride again. However, the manager failed to sign the team up for races for a while due to financial problems, and the team relegated to the 10th division again. But after a third of the season, they started riding again, and with 3 wins and some other results, Thanassis guided them to the 7th division all by himself.
But as he failed to get wins or results in the 7th division, he knew it was time to go. He finished his career in Thessaloniki, where he got a 6st place in the local division 7 TT, cheered by many fans, and wearing his National Champion jersey.
Thanassis currently lives with his wife Mia and son Giotgos jr in Tashkent, where he is a trainer for the Tashkent Browncoats. He has won 16 races, has gotten 47 results, has finished second in the world championship, and he was Greek Champion for almost his whole career.
Greece