Former road race world champion sentenced to four months in prison
CyclingWednesday, 12 March 2025 at 10:11
Many long-time cycling fans may remember the name of 2000 World Championship road race winner Romāns Vainšteins. The Latvian, who secured the Rainbow Jersey in Plouay a quarter of a century ago, has now been sentenced to prison.
Vainsteins was a star of the professional peloton between 1997 and 2004. Alongside his aforementioned Rainbow Jersey win, he also won four stages of Tirreno-Adriatico over the years, plus a Grand Tour stage at the Giro d'Italia in 1999 and other notably races such as Paris-Brussels, Coppa Bernocchi and more in a career that totalled 22 victories in all.
It seems though, his life has gone wrong in recent years. According to Italian news outlet Corriere, the now-52-year-old Latvian was arrested as he landed at the airport in his nation's capital city of Riga. The ex-rider is now set to serve four months in prison for failing to pay alimony to his family.
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Senna196001-05-2025 - That was nice of Jonas to give this guy a great memory he'll have forever. From this photo it looks like Jonas has some muscle back that he lost last year after his crash, hopefully this means the Tour will be more competitive between him and Tadej.awp01-05-2025
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Barney01-05-2025 - Only when the titans collide will it be interesting. MSR, PR,Flanders. LBL there was no competition. TDF Jonas will be thereabstractengineer01-05-2025