Jiří Daler

“Once the Znojmo-Brno race took place, and I was on a bike - I had the Favourite bike already — got into that group of racing cyclists. And not even a devil would get me out of that group. In the end it turned out that a referee arrived on a motorcycle and drove me from there. But my dad's fellow employee, whom I knew from the holiday brigade, invited me to a group meeting, which was Slavia Žabovřesky back then. I came there and it turned out that I was at a meeting on Monday and I was racing on Saturday. I got such an interim card that I have a medical examination and that I am a member of the Slavia Žabovřesky club and I was competing in the first races. And because my preparation with friends was good, I even won the race. It was in Třebíč and I still remember it very well.”

“At the time there were problems with exit clauses, visas… Even though I was already in France, I couldn't go through many races in Italy, I had no visa. When I wanted to go to Germany, I had to either go for a visa with a passport to Lyon, or send a passport there by mail to give me a stamp that I could go to Germany. I couldn't race much in Belgium because I didn't have a visa. There were just complications. For this reason, I did not return to Czechoslovakia between races, because I would not be allowed to go to the next one. Only after six days, after the end of the summer season, I returned because I actually had nowhere to be. I was always released, but I had to go back. Or I didn't, but I'd have to stay outside. And finally it turned out that I was let go to some twenty-four hour racing in Portugal, and then they said, 'Done, it is over. You are finished at the summer season.‘ At CSTV they still promised me that they would let me go for six days, but... they didn't let me go anymore. Well, I ended my career.”

“Of course, after each trip we had to tell who we saw and so on. That worked so well in the army.” Interviewer: “Have they ever asked you to find out any information? Or have they ever threatened you apart from meeting employees abroad or something alike? “I wasn't in charge of anything like that. Rather, we told them we saw a German military convoy, or a similar bluff.”