At the age of 59, former Slovak cyclist Peter Hric died on Friday. He was a top cyclocross, and later also an excellent mountain cyclist (he competed in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta), but he also succeeded in road cycling. A native of Spišská Nová Ves would celebrate his 60s on 17 June. The information was published by the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee (SOŠV) on its official website.
Hric died in Luxembourg, where he settled at the beginning of a professional career in 1991. In Slovakia he initially rode the locomotive of the Mine Spišská Nová Ves, later to Košice Lokomotiva. As a 14-year-old started cyclocross, he later added road cycling (in 1985 it was even fourth in the overall classification around Slovakia) and subsequently mountain biking, which began to develop in the early 1990s of the last century.
The most success was the Hric in a cyclocross in which Czechoslovak representatives have long been one of the world’s absolute top. He won bronze at the Junior World Championship 1983 and was close to the world medal among men. At the 1989 World Championship in Pont-Chateau finished fourth. He scored three triumphs in the Superprestige race series, which was the World Cup equivalent (SP).
After the Communist regime collapsed in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic at the end of 1989, many athletes opened the way to legal activities abroad. In 1991, Hric began to ride for the Luxembourg team Carrera-Wolber. He had to adapt to the team strategy there, so he has been engaged in mountain biking instead of road cycling. He continued that in 1994-1996, when he rode for the American Diamondback team, He reminded the portal Olympic.sk.
In the mountain biking, Hric in 1991 in Groesbeek became the first and so far the only Slovak to win the SP race. He was best successful in 1993, when he finished third at the European Championship in Klosters and in the overall ranking of the SP, plus the fifth at the World Championship. In this sector he also presented himself at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where mountain biking had the Olympic premiere. Unfortunately, he got a puncture in the first round of the race and lost a lot of time repair. He was classified in 30th place.
Even after the end of his sports career, Hric remained live in Luxembourg. As stated by the portal biker.sk, He worked as a designer and developer in the automotive industry.
