Milan Kadlec

Hailing from the Czech Republic, Milan has been around bikes all his life, in part due to his dad who was also a pro and successful track rider. Yet, it wasn’t the sport that he originally played as he was a keen ice-hockey player for over eight years; training and competing for his local team. In that time Milan then started to ride too, and when he was around 12 years old, he figured out that he enjoyed the sport too, eventually joining a club and starting properly at around the age of 14. He hasn’t looked back since.

A strong rider with a big engine, Milan has tasted success on the road and the track, where in the latter he is World and European junior champion in the madison event. On the road, you might recognise his name from the 90-kilometre breakaway that he was part of a as a first-year junior at the 2021 Worlds in Belgium – a day which Milan reflects on as a “crazy experience.”

Looking back on his 2022 campaign, the young Czech rider cites his win on the second stage of the Saarland Trofeo Juniors or his ride at World Championships in Australia as his two best days on the bike; with the former one where everything really clicked.

As a first year U23, Milan is more than happy to throw himself into whatever is needed of him, and he just wants to soak in as much knowledge and experience as possible in the coming years to improve as a rider.

A competitor and fighter at heart, Milan is also motivated by winning but that is not only focused on himself putting his arms in the air, as he is also more than happy if one of his teammates is the person crossing the line first – “I like helping others achieve success too, it’s about winning together.”

Looking inwards as a person, he describes himself as “kind, calm and social”, three attributes which he feels that translate well to cycling due to the team environment and nature of the sport.

If he’s not on the bike, you can find Milan out by his local river where he enjoys relaxing with some fishing – where he’s caught “some pretty big ones” in the past. Like a lot of his teammates, Milan also just enjoys spending time with his friends and family, catching up over a coffee or some food.