# Roman Kreuziger

Roman Kreuziger (Czech pronunciation:; 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.
Kreuziger competed as an all-rounder, with climbing and time trial abilities, becoming a contender for the General classification of stage races. He was also 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. The next year, he won the 2009 Tour de Romandie and in 2013, he was the victor of the Amstel Gold Race.
Since his retirement, Kreuziger now works as a directeur sportif for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious.

## Career
### Liquigas (2006–2010)

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.

### Astana (2011–2012)

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. 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.
In 2012, he finished third in the Tirreno–Adriatico. He entered the 2012 Giro d'Italia leading Team Astana with Paolo Tiralongo. He won the mountainous stage 19 after a solo breakaway but had a disappointing 15th overall finish.

### Team Saxo–Tinkoff (2013–2016)

Kreuziger left Astana at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Saxo–Tinkoff on a three-year contract from the 2013 season onwards. 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. Kreuziger worked with doping doctor Michele Ferrari according to former teammate Leonardo Bertagnolli. 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. He did and he admitted working with Ferrari from the autumn of 2006 through 2007 but that he did not use banned drugs. 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. In August 2014, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal by Kreuziger to allow him to start the 2014 Vuelta a España. 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. The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in October 2014. The case was dropped by both agencies on 5 June 2015. 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. 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. 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. He also finished in sixth place in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships, leading home the first chase group.

### Team Dimension Data and Gazprom–RusVelo (2019–2021)

After two years with Mitchelton–Scott, Kreuziger joined Team Dimension Data to bolster its roster for classic cycle races. In his two seasons with the team, he did not record a single top-ten individual finish.
Kreuziger joined Gazprom–RusVelo on a one-year contract, for the 2021 season. 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.

## Major results
### Cyclo-cross
#### 2004

    2nd UCI World Junior Championships
    2nd UEC European Junior Championships

### Road

Source:

#### 2003

    6th Time trial, UCI World Junior Championships

#### 2004

    UCI World Junior Championships
       1st Road race
       2nd Time trial
    National Junior Championships
       1st Road race
       1st Time trial
    1st Overall Grand Prix Rüebliland
    5th Overall Giro della Lunigiana
       1st Stage 3b (ITT)

#### 2005

    2nd Overall Giro delle Regioni
       1st Stage 3
    8th Gran Premio Palio del Recioto
    10th Overall Giro della Toscana

#### 2006

    9th Trofeo Città di Castelfidardo
    9th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese

#### 2007

    1st Trofeo Città di Borgomanero
    6th Overall Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda
       1st Stages 1 (TTT) & 2
    6th Overall Tour de Romandie

#### 2008

    1st Overall Tour de Suisse
       1st Stage 8 (ITT)
    2nd Overall Tour de Romandie
    7th Overall Tour of Missouri
       1st Young rider classification
    10th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

#### 2009

    1st Overall Tour de Romandie
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stage 4
    1st Clásica de San Sebastián
    3rd Overall Tour de Suisse
    7th UCI World Ranking
    8th Overall Tour de France
    10th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

#### 2010

    1st Overall Giro di Sardegna
       1st Stage 2
    3rd Overall Paris–Nice
       1st Young rider classification
    5th Amstel Gold Race
    7th Overall Tour de France
    8th Overall Volta a Catalunya

#### 2011

    Giro del Trentino
       1st Mountains classification
       1st Stage 4
    4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    5th Overall Giro d'Italia
       1st Young rider classification

#### 2012

    1st Stage 19 Giro d'Italia
    2nd Tour Bohemia
    3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
    6th Overall Tour de Romandie
    6th Overall Tour de Suisse
    6th Overall Giro del Trentino
    6th Strade Bianche

#### 2013

    1st Amstel Gold Race
    3rd Overall Tour de Suisse
    3rd Clásica de San Sebastián
    5th Overall Tour de France
    6th GP Miguel Induráin

#### 2014

    3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
    5th Strade Bianche
    7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    8th Overall Tour of Oman
    8th Overall Tour de Suisse
    8th La Flèche Wallonne

#### 2015

    1st Stage 6 USA Pro Cycling Challenge
    5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    10th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

#### 2016

    1st Road race, National Championships
    6th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
    7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    10th Overall Tour de France
    10th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

#### 2017

    1st Pro Ötztaler 5500
    4th Road race, National Championships

#### 2018

    2nd Amstel Gold Race
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    6th Road race, UCI World Championships
    8th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
    8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

#### General classification results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results :
| Grand Tour | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | 5 | 15 | — | — | 28 | — | — | 55 | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | — | 12 | 8 | 7 | 112 | — | 5 | — | 17 | 10 | 24 | — | 16 | 109 | — |
| / Vuelta a España | 21 | — | 61 | 28 | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Major stage race general classification results ||||||||||||||||
| Race | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Paris–Nice | 19 | DNF | DNF | 3 | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 19 | — | 24 | — |
| / Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 10 | DNF | — | 27 | — | 77 |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | NH | 78 |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | 10 | — | — | — | 18 | 17 | — | 30 | 33 | — | — | NH | — |
| Tour de Romandie | 6 | 2 | 1 | DNF | 63 | 6 | 30 | — | — | — | 35 | — | — | NH | — |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 19 | 28 | — | — | DNF | — |
| Tour de Suisse | — | 1 | 3 | 16 | — | 6 | 3 | 8 | — | — | — | DNF | 22 | NH | — |

#### Classics results timeline

| Monument | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Milan–San Remo | — | — | — | 86 | — | — | — | DNF | 29 | 56 | — | — | 40 | 54 | — |
| Tour of Flanders | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career |
| Paris–Roubaix | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career | Did not contest during his career |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | — | 45 | 48 | 4 | — | 125 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 27 | 8 | 79 | DNF | DNF |
| Giro di Lombardia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 23 | — | DNF | 32 | 43 | DNF | — | — |
| Classic | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Strade Bianche | DNF | — | — | — | — | 6 | — | 5 | 11 | — | DNF | — | 20 | OTL | — |
| Amstel Gold Race | 59 | 52 | 18 | 5 | — | — | 1 | 18 | 14 | 12 | 126 | 2 | 18 | NH | 81 |
| La Flèche Wallonne | 39 | 50 | 51 | 91 | — | — | 17 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 72 | 4 | DNF | DNF | 47 |
| Clásica de San Sebastián | — | 20 | 1 | DNF | — | — | 3 | — | 13 | 22 | 63 | — | 17 | NH | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| OTL | Outside time limit |
| DNF | Did not finish |
| NH | Not held |