Olympic Prospects 2020

Cyclist Vlad Dascălu

Florin Orban, 06.08.2020, 01:45

One of the youngest members of Romanias Olympic team is cyclist Vlad Dascălu. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2019, when he won the World Championship, the World Cup and the European Championship in U23 cross-country mountain bike.

Vlad Dascălu was born in the village of Buda, near Fălticeni, in Suceava County, in the north, on December 7, 1997. At the age of 9, he moved with his parents to Spain. It was there that he got his first bike, at 10 years of age. According to the home page of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, Vlad was first introduced to a cycling circuit at the age of 14. At 16 he took part in his first cross-country race and he came out second, which is the moment that actually shaped his future sports career. Only a year later, at the European championship for juniors, he finished the 6th.

When he was 18, he came to Romania and won the national mountain bike championship, the Cross-Country Olympic event, although he was only taking part as an amateur, without being a member of any team. He was immediately recruited by Dinamo BikeXpert Superbet, and a string of major performances followed. He travelled regularly from Spain to Romania to train with his team, he won World Cup points and started being noticed by top-class teams.

In 2018 he signed a contract with Brujula Bike Racing Team in Spain, with which in July 2019, in Brno, the Czech Republic, he won the European Youth Championship in the U23 category. A month later, in Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada, he won the world title in the same category. He also had an excellent run at the World Cup, where he won 4 out of the 7 stages of the competition.

These performances made him the cyclist of the year 2019 in Romania.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)