I´ve been cycling from my early childhood. My nursery was the storage of my dad´s bicycle and his jerseys. As I was the son of Milan Jurčo, twofold participant at Tour de France, be sure, that riding the bicycle was even the first thing I´ve learnt. As I know I´ve learnt to ride by the Lago di Garda in Italy.
First I spent much free time riding the mountainbike. That time my dad was organizing the XC competitions in our region so almost every weekend I took part in the race in the youth category.
Later, at the age 12 I began to ride the road bicycle more. I was much faster than my opponents so I competed among older riders. I´ve assured the stable position in the Slovak national cycling teams. The first big success I gained when I was 15. I won the bronze medal in the road race at European Young Olympic Days in Denmark in 1999. Then I´ve won Pinkafeld in Austria and collected many international successes.
I reached the top of the youth racing in 2002 when I won the UCI Road World Challenge.At the World Championships in Zolder in 2002 I finished 5th. Often I´ve been measuring my strenght with Thomas Dekker, Jukka Vastaranta, Tyler Farrar, Thomas Lövkvist, Andy Schleck...
That year I´ve also taken part in XC MTB World Junior Championships in Kaprun, Austria. I finished 11th there. I´d been riding in 3th place for a long time but the wild downhills had been still slowing me down. The winner was Trent Lowe. It was the only one XC race in my season - world championships.
2002 was also the year of my school leaving exam at Secondary Electrotechnical Apprentice School.
