1. Roman Kreuziger was considered one of the biggest talents of the sport after winning the junior road race at the 2004 UCI Road World Championships and the 2008 Tour de Suisse at the age of 22.
20 Facts About Roman Kreuziger
1. 2.
Roman Kreuziger 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.
3.
Roman Kreuziger took his first professional victory in the second stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda.
4.
Roman Kreuziger avenged his loss by winning the Tour de Suisse by finishing 49 seconds ahead of Kloden and winning the mountain time trial to Klausen Pass.
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Roman Kreuziger added to this success by finishing in ninth place in the Tour de France.
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Roman 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.
7.
In 2011, Roman Kreuziger won the mountains classification and a stage in the Giro del Trentino.
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Roman Kreuziger did not quite have the uphill strength that Contador, Nibali, and Scarponi had, causing him to miss out on the podium.
9.
Roman Kreuziger ended up finishing 5th overall and he won the young rider's classification.
10.
Roman Kreuziger entered the 2012 Giro d'Italia leading Team Astana with Paolo Tiralongo.
11.
Roman Kreuziger won the mountainous stage 19 after a solo breakaway but had a disappointing 15th overall finish.
12.
Roman Kreuziger worked with doping doctor Michele Ferrari according to former teammate Leonardo Bertagnolli.
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Roman Kreuziger did and he admitted working with Ferrari from the autumn of 2006 through 2007 but that he did not use banned drugs.
14.
In 2014, Roman Kreuziger started his season finishing 8th in the Tour of Oman.
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Roman Kreuziger rode the Tirreno Adriatico in support of Alberto Contador though he finished 3rd overall with Contador winning the race.
16.
In June 2014, Tinkoff-Saxo announced that Roman Kreuziger was being temporarily suspended from racing after the UCI questioned abnormalities in his biological passport.
17.
The UCI had originally highlighted the problems in his biological data for the 2011 and 2012 seasons through a letter in June 2013, which Roman 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.
18.
Roman Kreuziger took part in the 2015 Tour de France, finishing in 17th place.
19.
Roman Kreuziger finished in sixth place in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships, leading home the first chase group.
20.
Roman Kreuziger 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.