Well known cyclist, Mateo Cruz, passed away yesterday evening, around 6:00. Cruz was a star cyclist in the early 2000's when he rode for Santino's Cycling Club. Today the former team owner Santiago Castillo told us that he wasn't surprised at the news, since he'd known for about a month that Cruz had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.
Santiago Castillo, Owner, Santino Cycling Club
"I wasn't totally surprised because I had seen the transition. Mateo has been sick with his liver for a while, Mateo is a very private person and in fact even me he just recently told me that about four to six weeks ago, he spent a week at KHMH, they kinda gave up on him his family said, so they took him over to universal healthcare and he wasn't very conscious so I knew that it was a touch and go situation."
"Yesterday we got some very good news, yesterday was a, in cycling jargon, it's like climbing a hill and going down the hill, they had us up and down, peaks and valleys, they called to tell us Mateo, he's brother in law said he was up, because most of the while he was unconscious so he was up and watching the Tour de France and that they were going to fly him out to the US on Wednesday so we were all feeling good, and I said well, I didn't want to visit him when he was unconscious, I didn't want to see him in that way, so I said when he's conscious so when they told me that yesterday midday, I said tomorrow I'm going to see him. Little bit later we found out that he took a turn for the worse and they put him on life support."
"The best I can say is that he's no longer suffering because he was in pain and God was ready for him."
And Castillo reminisced on the first time he met Cruz:
Santiago Castillo, Owner, Santino Cycling Club
"Let me tell you a cute story about how Mateo joined the team. Mateo must have been about 20 years old, the year must have been 93, 94, I was in my office at that time Hyde's Lane on New Road and my secretary told me that Mateo Cruz was outside wanted to see me. Didn't have an appointment. And I said, sure, send Mateo Cruz in, I don't know who he is but send him in and I'm expecting to see a Spanish man, Mateo Cruz, and when Mateo came in it was the Mateo Cruz we all know. And I can tell you that he sat down and he simply asked me to be a part of team Santino and something about Mateo's personality, you know when you gel with somebody, if let that connection and I said sure."
"He has his share of victories but he had to play support to the other big names to Ernest Meighan, in fact four of my cyclists have passed away, Dangalang Thurton has passed away, Ariel Rosado to whom Mateo and him were good friends, he played support to, eventually the other names came in, Gregory Lovell, Froggy Leslie, so Mateo played a lot of support."
"I tried to bring him back to the team to race but he didn't want to race, he just wanted to ride for his health. Maybe he already knew then that he had health problems but like I said, he was extremely private with his health problem."
Cruz won several major races, and placed third in one of the Holy Saturday Cross Country Classic's back in the early 2000's.
