Jiří Štancl

"I went in July ... in July 1970 I ended my basic military service and they wanted me to stay in the Rudá hvězda club, but I didn't want to stay there, I was then… It was not that I did not want to ride for the Rudá hvězda club, but I didn't just want to sign as a cop or something like that. So, I worked in Košíře for two or three months. There, as there was a taxi rank, there was a taxi repair shop and there was a bus and trolleybus repair shop. Trolleybuses were still running at that time. And the trolleybuses, it arrived from a line, the engine was changed in the morning and it could work again, it was the electric motor. And then when the buses started, I was in a team of Mr. Vachta and I was there because I was a car mechanic, so I was working on the engine, everything around, injection pumps, nozzles to adjust, everything. And there were boys, each with one, front wheel, left, right, rear… And then it was done, when we had time, so we did everything. The bus arrived in the morning, at six o'clock or half past six, it came from the line and at two o'clock it had to go to the line again. It all had to be done, so each one of us had his own job. But again, it was good that I needed to have tin boots done or something, because at that time we didn't have the stellite, the cemented carbide that is welded on it, so the plumbers just helped me do this, I already knew a little bit, then I even ... in the military service, Venca Verner taught me the autogenous welding, so I could do this. And so, I can somehow say that I had everything I needed there. But they just wanted it at any cost, so they invited me, or the Rudá hvězda management said I had to go the Rudá hvězda, but instead of going there, I went back to the workshop, so they just came for me by a police car and loaded me into it. I had to take all the things, and they took me to Veleslavín and had me sign that I became an athlete-instructor in Rudá hvězda Prague."

"That's when the tracks started to get tough. And there in the engine, you had to be able to handle gas. Full throttle never wins. That´s true even when you drive a car. Full throttle is not everything. You have to check the gas too. I broke my navicular when I was starting up the Volga, when I had a Volga, so I needed to start it up, and of course it gave me an electric shock. My navicular broke, so I have such a bump until today. I just didn't do it like this, because I don't actually bend my wrist more than that, so I learned to do it spindle-like. And because we had the handlebars up, I held it up beautifully, as they say, and I was able to put the bike down much more, so I didn't need to go so hard with gas in that corner - well I had to go with gas too, but I still had some reserve there, while the boys went all the way. And then on the way out, when I speeded up there, all of a sudden - it was just there, wasn't it?"