He also decided to leave Czechoslovakia and eventually managed to defect in 1987. After spending a year in Austria, he arrived in Australia in 1988. It did not take long for him to become involved with cycling on the local scene via his job at Sydney Manly Cycle Centre (on Sydney's Northern Beaches). Soon after, he was racing again, participating mostly in criteriums and track races.
A few years later, Radek, together with his friend Andrew Taylor, established a bicycle shop, named “Favourite Cycles”, (this successful business services the needs of Manly's cycling community up to this day).
In 1996 Radek felt that he still had some "unfinished business" in racing, so after some preparation in Australia he returned to the European cycling scene for one season. He competed in a series of selected races - mainly on the road, but also in one special three-day stage track race ("500+1 Laps" in Brno, Czech Republic), which at the time was a new season opening event on the track. This was an especially emotional undertaking, as it had been in this very town and track where he had had his earliest racing experiences.
