Russian National Championships - CN
Moscow, June 29-July 1, 2001
Main Page Results
Day 1 - June 29: Elite
Men time trial, 33 km
Petrov a bit late as
his former teammates take over
By Sergey Kurdukov, Russian Eurosport commentator
A day before the start of the Russian pro ITT championship, Luca Gvercilena,
one of the younger generation of Mapei's coaches told me: "Well, if
Evgueni Petrov loses his title it won't be a tragedy for the team. We
know pretty well that to win the championship is one thing but to defend
the leading spot is quite another thing, a much harder task. Could he
have imagined IN WHAT WAY Evgueni would miss the double...
Petrov, the best U23 chrono-man in the world was naturally to start
last. He was warming up not far from the start/finish area, making rather
long laps (perhaps too long, as you'll see a bit later), to keep his
legs as warm as possible and set off briskly right from the scratch.
But Luca and his Russian colleague Rinat Latypov, the coach of Agidel
Team who still closely follows the development of his former team rider,
were utterly shocked when heard the announcement that it was just about
15 second to Petrov's start. They jumped out of the team car and set
off jumping and vigorously waving the hands in the air to show Evgueni
(who was a couple of hundred meters away at the moment) he was to be
at the line immediately. Unfortunately, Petrov is not much of a sprinter,
and even less of a cross-country man to climb the stairs to the starting
podium in no time at all. When he began his race, the time deficit was
about 17 seconds.
He gave the race everything, enjoying Luca's typically Italian enthusiastic
support (I felt sorry for his vocal chords), yet finally could only
finish 4th. But if you look at the result sheet closely, you'll see
that without this lapse, Petrov would have taken silver.
The race turned out to be really close and everything counted for
the riders going near their limit. The 11 km long laps were very technical
and hilly in some places, so the team coaches and organizers felt rather
uncomfortable on the pre-race evening, constantly looking up to the
cloudy skies as it started drizzling. Fortunately, the morning of the
29th of June was nice and the riders had to cope with an easier problem
of broiling (by Moscow standards it's about 29 C nowadays) heat.
All in all, the younger ITT specialists were more successful on the
sunny day (there was no end of pretty girls walking by to the nearby
Olympic rowing channel to swim in its clean water and to sunbathe on
the bank). Some of the girls were spotted on the eve of the race making
fans graffiti on the most difficult uphill sections for the Muscovite
Oleg Joukov. "Jouk (his nickname, the Russian for 'beetle') , it's your
race" it read. Yet the silver medalist in 2000 and European ITT champion
a couple of years ago looked somewhat heavy this time on his home ground,
especially on the last of 3 laps.
Itera's boys also failed to live up to the highest expectations, and
that was probably regrettable for their sponsor who also gave financial
support to the championship. Olympic and World track medalist Alex Markov
was not exceptional this time, although he was riding on home territory,
like Joukov. The top two spots, rather surprisingly, were grabbed by
the youngsters who'd left the juniors category not long ago.
23 year old Dmitri Sjomov and Denis Bondarenko (Petrov's former teammates)
found the necessary rhythm. On the other hand, it's small wonder, as
the former was a European ITT medalist in 2000, and the latter is fresh
from the podium of the Baby Giro where he dominated in all the races
against the clock.
An interesting detail about the newly-crowned champion (a highly communicative
young man, by the way): he is the son-in-law of Latypov and he won hours
before his 23rd birthday. Dmitri was born in Arzamas which is mistakenly
thought in the West to be just a nuclear or chemical waste bin of the
former USSR. He rode an ITT titanium frame built in Nizny Novgorod -
and beat all the brands. As to Andrei Zintchenko, I hope it's not necessary
to introduce the multiple Vuelta stage winner to anyone. His wife Irina
and daughter Anjelika came from Spain with him and enjoyed his success.
Post-Race Interviews
Dmitri Sjomov (Agidel): "I felt comfortable with the route. Yes, it's
technical but rather fast and I liked it . When you've got good legs,
it's not so important what kind of terrain it is. The only problem for
me was to watch out for some holes on the straight section. I am an
ITT specialist, so on Sunday's road race I'll be a workhorse for my
teammates. We'll try hard not to let the stars like Konychev or Tonkov
to win easily. It was a nice atmosphere over here as my parents came
from Arzamas to support me. My wife also inspired me greatly to this
victory."
Denis Bondarenko (Resine Ragnioli-Agidel): "This silver is a nice
surprise for me as my form is on the way down and I didn't feel that
strong. No wonder as I've got a couple of successful Italian races behind
me and it's hardly possible to be at the peak the whole of the season."
Andrei Zintchenko (LA-Pecol): "I am rather happy with the result.
Actually I'm not at the top of my condition at the moment. Even my heart
rate monitor shows it clearly...I rarely managed to hold more then 174
bpm. Tactically my position was not the most desirable either, as I
opened the final group of elite and everyone could target my intermediate
results. The top priority for my team is the Volta a Portugal and then
the Vuelta, so I am supposed to be totally fit more than a month later.
On the other hand, every medal is precious for me and my team. Besides,
you should keep in my mind UCI points."
Evgueni Petrov (Mapei): "I am disappointed, of course. But it wasn't
only my coming late to the start that mattered. I lost too much time
on the sharp turns, and on a technical route like that it's crucial."
Alexander Gousiatnikov, President of Russian cycling federation: "We
are determined to invite the strongest Russian pro's to Moscow, moreover,
to the Krylatskoye Olympic centre. It's a legendary site and it must
live on. But if we don't hold top-rate competitions here, we'll lose
it. Yes, for time trialists it's not the easiest course, our generation
of riders were more used to competing along the dead flat in the ITT.
But that epoch is gone forever...just look how demanding ITT routes
in Europe are."
Results
1 Dmitri Sjomov (Agidel) 40.54.70 (48.40 km/h)
2 Denis Bondarenko (Resine Ragnioli-Agidel) 0.14.08
3 Andrei Zintchenko (LA-Pecol) 0.17.50
4 Evgueni Petrov (Mapei) 0.20.34
5 Faat Zakirov (Amore e Vita) 0.24.89
6 Artur Babaitsev (Team Nurnberger) 0.31.37
7 Alexei Markov (Itera) 0.42.90
8 Oleg Joukov (Dynamo) 0.45.26
9 Denis Tischenko (LADA-Samara) 0.51.08
10 Vladimir Karpets (Itera) 0.52.90
11 Denis Menchov (iBanesto.com) 1.01.00
...
13 Sergei Smetanine (Jazztel-Costa Almeria) 1.40.51
21 Pavel Broutt (Itera) 2.43.21
Starters: 48
Finishers: 47
Disqualifications: 1
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