Roman Kreuziger (Czech pronunciation:[ˈromanˈkrojtsɪɡr̩]; born 6 May 1986) is a Czech former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2021 for six different teams. His father, Roman Kreuziger Sr., was also a bicycle racer who won the Tour of Austria in 1991 and the Cyclocross Junior World Championships in 1983.
He turned professional in 2006 with Liquigas after a successful amateur career which saw him win the Junior Road World Championships in 2004 and a stage of the Giro delle Regioni in 2005. In 2007, he showed great improvements in his abilities by placing second in the prologues of Paris–Nice and the Tour de Romandie, where he also finished sixth overall. He took his first professional victory in the second stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. In late 2007, he also completed his first Grand Tour after finishing 21st in the Vuelta a España.
In 2008, he finished second in the Tour de Romandie, 35 seconds behind Andreas Klöden, one of the world's leading riders. He avenged his loss by winning the Tour de Suisse by finishing 49 seconds ahead of Klöden and winning the mountain time trial to Klausen Pass. In his first Tour de France, he proved himself as an excellent climber among the world's greats, eventually finishing second in the youth competition, and 12th overall. After the Tour, Kreuziger was known to be one of the future riders to potentially win grand tours.
In 2009, he got back to the Tour de Romandie and finally succeeded in his attempt to win the race, getting also one stage victory. He added to this success by finishing in ninth place in the Tour de France.
In 2010, he won the Giro di Sardegna, finished third in Paris–Nice. Kreuziger's 9th overall in the Tour de France was a disappointment because it was not much of an improvement from his 9th-place finish in the 2009 Tour (though he would move into 8th after the Alberto Contador's stripped title). He then made the move from Liquigas–Doimo to Astana after five seasons with the Italian team.[8]
In 2011, Kreuziger won the mountains classification and a stage in the Giro del Trentino. He achieved a 4th-place finish in the Liège–Bastogne–Liège by winning the sprint of the chasing group, almost half-a-minute behind winner Philippe Gilbert.[9] He then aimed for the Giro d'Italia. Kreuziger did not quite have the uphill strength that Contador, Nibali, and Scarponi had, causing him to miss out on the podium. He ended up finishing 5th overall and he also won the young rider's classification.[10]
Kreuziger left Astana at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Saxo–Tinkoff on a three-year contract from the 2013 season onwards.[2] In April 2013, he won the Amstel Gold Race. He broke free of the lead group with 7 km (4.3 mi) to go and resisted the peloton's surge on the Cauberg, taking a solo triumph.[14] Kreuziger worked with doping doctor Michele Ferrari according to former teammate Leonardo Bertagnolli.[15] When asked about the allegations after the Amstel Gold Race, Kreuziger refused to comment on the ties, saying he would address the topic after the Tour de Romandie.[16] He did and he admitted working with Ferrari from the autumn of 2006 through 2007 but that he did not use banned drugs.[17] After the Amstel Gold Race, Kreuziger finished 3rd in the Tour de Suisse after aiming to win it.
Despite riding the 2013 Tour to support Alberto Contador, Kreuziger left the Pyrenees 5th overall. After putting a solid time trial on stage 17, Kreuziger moved into the top three, moving ahead of Laurens ten Dam and Bauke Mollema. Despite moving into a high finish with Alberto Contador, Kreuziger slipped down to 5th overall after losing ground to Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodríguez in the alps.
In 2014, Kreuziger started his season finishing 8th in the Tour of Oman. He rode the Tirreno Adriatico in support of Alberto Contador though he finished 3rd overall with Contador winning the race. After, he rode through the Ardennes classics finishing in the top ten in the Fleche Wallonne and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He then finished 8th the Tour de Suisse.
In June 2014, Tinkoff-Saxo announced that Kreuziger was being temporarily suspended from racing after the UCI questioned abnormalities in his biological passport. The UCI had originally highlighted the problems in his biological data for the 2011 and 2012 seasons through a letter in June 2013, which Kreuziger had responded to in October 2013, even though the values did not get out of the biological passport range which determines what values the gained cyclist samples ought to have. The UCI subsequently followed this up in May 2014. This prevented Kreuziger from riding the Tour de France and Tour de Pologne.[18] In August 2014, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal by Kreuziger to allow him to start the 2014 Vuelta a España.[19] On 22 September, it was announced that the Czech Olympic Committee had cleared him of any anti-doping violation and that he was free to compete again.[20] The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in October 2014.[21] The case was dropped by both agencies on 5 June 2015.[22] Kreuziger took part in the 2015 Tour de France, finishing in 17th place.
Orica–Scott (2017–2018)
In August 2016, Orica–Scott announced the 'game-changing signing' of Kreuziger on a 2-year contract, ending at the end of the 2018 season.[3] In his first season, Kreuziger took his only victory with the team at the Pro Ötztaler 5500, a one-day race with 5,500 metres (18,000 feet) of climbing.[23] In 2018, he recorded top-ten finishes in the three Ardennes classics races, with a best finish of second place at the Amstel Gold Race, losing a two-up sprint to Michael Valgren.[24] He also finished in sixth place in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships, leading home the first chase group.[25]
Team Dimension Data and Gazprom–RusVelo (2019–2021)
Kreuziger joined Gazprom–RusVelo on a one-year contract, for the 2021 season.[27] He failed to record any top-twenty individual finishes, and although he was offered a contract extension for 2022, Kreuziger elected to retire and became a directeur sportif with Team Bahrain Victorious.[28]
^"Kreuziger jubelt nach 5.500 Höhenmetern in Sölden" [Kreuziger celebrates after climbing 5,500 meters in Sölden]. Radsport-News.com (in German). Sport Aktiv Media GmbH. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
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