Joachim Halupczok

Joachim Halupczok ( born June 3, 1968 in Ozimek in Opole, Opole † 5 February 1994 ) was considered one of the best Polish cyclist in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Halupczok began his cycling career in the small cycling club LKS Ziemia Opolska. Among the coaches Marian Staniszewski and Erwin Chmiel he improved from year to year. In the junior categories, he dominated throughout Poland. Halupczok won, for example, 1987 three gold medals at the Polish Radmeisterschaften. He won not only in road racing, but also on the track and in cross-country races.

A year later, he was already an integral part of the Polish national team. In South Korea, the Olympics were held in which Halupczok in the 100 -km driving team won a silver medal. Besides it belonged to the Polish national team still Marek Leśniewski, Andrzej Sypytkowski and Zenon Jaskuła which should be third in the 1993 Tour de France.

In the cycling season 1989 Halupczok finally made ​​the breakthrough. Both the GP and Liberation in Rome, as well as in the National Championships, he won superior. He was one of the favorites of the Peace Race. Due to an accident at Posen he succeeded only the rank 4

In August 1989, he celebrated with his teammates first silver at the World Cycling Championships in Chambery, by three days to pick up later in the individual race, the gold medal. He went on the last two laps alone in front of the field, the lead over his pursuers grew steadily. At the finish he had nearly three minutes ahead. A few months after the triumphant victory in France Halupczok was elected to Poland's athlete of the year.

Halupczok left the amateur scene in 1990 and signed his first professional contract with the team Diana Colnago Animex. There were other teams: Del Tongo - Animex and GB -MG Boys. In Japan at the cycling world championships, he had a chance at the bronze medal, but one of the spectators, who stood by the roadside, Halupczok brought random basis.

The year 1990 ended for Halupczok with tragic news. Doctors diagnosed him with him during one of the many routine tests cardiac arrhythmia fixed. The entire 1991 season Halupczok spent in bed. In early 1992 he was allowed to ride my bike, in April he was still on the routes of Spain go ( Vuelta a Espana ) and was fifth at the Grand Prix Midi Libre.

But the heart problem worse. Halupczok was forced to resign. In Łódź, he underwent special medical treatment and was allowed in moderation to play sports. A year before his death, Halupczok made ​​with a soccer tournament. A ball that hit him in the chest caused him to faint. The subsequent diagnosis was chronic inflammation of the heart muscle ( myocarditis).

In the second half of the 1990s appeared in Belgium and France a number of books in which assumptions were made, according to which Halupczoks death has been associated with doping. This, however, argue the friends and colleagues Halupczoks vehemently.

Halupczok was married. He left behind two children. Halupczok was Buried in Osowiec Slaski. Since 1994, the highest mountains classification in the Tour de Pologne is the " Achim " as Halupczok was called in German Opole region, dedicated.

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