Czech rider took rare triple in the sport
Nineteen years after he won the world cyclo cross championship in Casting, the Czech rider Radomir Simunek has died. The 48 year old succumbed after a long battle with cirrhosis of the liver.
The rider is the only one to win world titles in all three age categories, taking the junior worlds in 1980, grabbing gold in the amateur worlds in 1983 and 1984, then taking the pro title in 1991. He was only able to turn professional after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, with all of his prize money before that point going to the national federation of Czechoslovakia.
Apart from taking the rainbow jersey, he also won the Superprestige trophy on three occasions and took four national cross titles.
His worlds win saw him voted as the top athlete in the country in a poll of sports journalists. He was also later named the best Czech cyclist of the 20th century.
“He was a rare talent,” said Cestmir Kalas, the head of the federation’s cyclocross committee, according to USA today.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a 1992 traffic accident he caused killed three people. However he received a presidential pardon from the-then Czech ruler Vaclav Havel and was released four months into his term. He returned to professional cycling.
Simunek began coaching his son and namesake Radomir Jr after his retirement from the sport. The latter is competing this year with the BKCP-Powerplus team in Belgium, and took eighth at this year’s world championships. He previously showed he had inherited his father’s talent when he grabbed silver medals in both the junior and under-23 World Championships.
Current world champion Zdeněk Štybar has paid tribute to his compatriot. “If [there] was no Simunek, I was no cyclo-crosser. Rest in peace,” he said this morning on Twitter.