Romāns Vainšteins

Romāns Vainšteins (born March 3, 1973 in Talsi , Kurland ) is a former Latvian cyclist .

Romāns Vainšteins comes from a humble background. Both parents were athletic, the father boxer in the Russian national team, the mother played basketball. He started cycling at the age of eleven. In 1991 he went to Belgium with four other drivers because he lacked support for his sporting ambitions at home.

Vainšteins began his career as a professional driver in 1998 with the Kross-Selle Italia team . Previously, he was a year when Team Polti as a trainee down. In 1999 he moved to Vini Caldirola , where he drove for two years. At the beginning of the 2001 season, the then world champion switched to Domo-Farm Frites . He stayed there for two years before returning to Vini Caldirola. After only a year he switched to Lampre . At the beginning of the 2005 season, Lampre merged with the Saeco team due to the newly created UCI ProTour . As a result, Vainšteins was left without a team, whereupon he ended his career on November 4, 2004 at the age of 31.

He competed in the Tour de France three times between 2000 and 2003, each time reaching the finish in Paris . In addition, he once drove the Giro d'Italia in 1999, which he could not finish. He celebrated his greatest success by winning the road race at the 2000 World Cup in Plouay .

doping

Romāns Vainšteins said in an interview after being asked about his attitude towards doping: "Whether I take something or not is my personal matter." His name later appeared in the documents in the context of the doping scandal Fuentes .