Iván Domínguez (born May 28, 1976 in Havana) is a Cuban professional road bicycle racer for the Franco MRI Racing Team. In 2009 Dominguez also known as "The Cuban Missile" acquired U.S. citizenship.[1]
Dominguez originally rode for the Cuban National Team on the track and was a Pan-American Gold Medalist in 1997. He defected in 1998 to live with his uncle in Miami. He spoke no English and worked in a shoe factory before starting to become successful in local bike races in Miami.
His opportunity to return to high level bicycle racing came in 2000 via the elite amateur Cycle Science (FL) racing team. The small team was built around him and toured in a refurbished bus from Florida to California to New England and back to Wisconsin before he signed his first professional contract in August.
He turned professional in 2001, when offered a spot on the Saturn Professional Cycling Team. In 2004, he switched to Colavita Olive Oil presented by Bolla Wines and he rode for Health Net Presented by Maxxis in 2005, before joining Toyota-United in 2006. In November 2008 Rock Racing announced that they had reached a deal for Dominguez to ride for them the following year. On December 10, 2008, Fuji-Servetto announced that Dominguez had signed, causing Rock Racing to remove him from their roster, however as of June 2009 Dominguez has gone from Fuji-Servetto to Rock Racing as one of their sprinters.[2]
He was a sprinter and was widely regarded as one of the best sprinters racing in America. He highlighted this by winning Stage 7 of the 2007 Tour of California, out-sprinting future road race world champion Thor Hushovd.
