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Andrei Tchmil
By Tomas Nilsson Andrei Tchmil is a man of many nations. He was born 1963 in Khabarovsk in the eastern part of Siberia. His family moved to the Ukraine where he started cycling and showed enough talent to be moved to a cycling school in Moldovia. He made his professional debut in 1989 with the Alfa Lum team. As a result of glasnost, the new openness in the Soviet system, the whole national cycling team were allowed to move to the west and try their luck as professionals for Alfa Lum. Dimitrij Konyschev and Piotr Ugrumov were others on the team. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992, Tchmil represented Moldovia where he lived in the Soviet Union. In 1995 he started riding with a Ukranian nationality and last year became a naturalized Belgian although he lives in Italy. When asked, he considers himself a Russian. His career started modestly but in 1991 he was ranked among the top 100 for the first time and then bit by bit he made it to twelfth in 1994, his breakthrough season, when he won his first World Cup race, Paris-Roubaix . Right now he is ranked fourth, his best placing ever. So far. Other WC wins: Paris-Tours in 1997 and Milan-San Remo this year and he is often at his best in the flatter classics. He has had some good performances in lesser stage races but with his lack of climbing skills, he is not a man for the grand tours, not even on single stages, although he often takes part in them. A second place in a stage of the Giro is his best so far and a top ten in a couple of stages are his standard performances. For some reason, he has never played a major role in the World Championships, except in Oslo 1993 when he came in sixth. Palmares: 1989: 2nd G.P di Prato 1990: 2nd G.P Cerami 1991 (ranked 81): 1st G.P Pino Cerami 3rd Tour du Nord-Ouest/Berne 3rd New Hampshire Pro Omnium 1st Soviet Championships 3rd Coppa Bernocchi/Legnano 1st Trittico premondiale/Conegliano 1st Paris-Bourges 1992 (72): 3rd Trittico premondiale 1/Conegliano 3rd Tour of Ireland/Nissan classic 2nd Coppa Sabatini 1993 (39): 3rd Giro di Campania 2nd Tirreno-Adriatico 3rd Brabantse Pijl 2nd Druivenkoers 2nd Championnat des Flandres 1994 (12): 1st Stage 2, 3 jours de La Panne 3rd Ronde Van Vlaanderen 1st Paris-Roubaix 1st G.P E3 Harelbeke 3rd 4 jours de Dunkerque 1st Stage 4, Vuelta a Burgos 1st Stage 3b, Kellog's Tour of Britain 1st G.P de Plouay/Ouest-France 3rd World Cup overall 1995 (10): 2nd Etoile de Bessèges 3rd Omloop Het Volk 3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen 2nd Paris-Roubaix 1st Paris-Camembert 1st Stage 1, Critérium du Dauphiné-Libéré 1st Stage 1, Vuelta a Burgos 1st Tour du Limousin, overall 1st Stage 1, Tour du Limousin 2nd Paris-Tours 2nd World Cup overall 1996 (15): 3rd Prix d'ouverture "La Marseillaise" 1st Stage 6, Paris-Nice 1st Stage 2, Les 3 jours de La Panne 3rd Prix d'ouverture "La Marseillaise" 1st Veenendaal-Veenendaal 3rd Amsterdam Derny race 1st Stage 4. Tour de Luxembourg 2nd Vuelta a Galicia, overall 1st Stage 1, Vuelta a Galicia 1st Stage 2, Vuelta a Galicia 3rd G.P Plouay - Ouest France 1997 (6): 1st Dwars door Belgie 2nd Gent - Wevelgem 2nd Grand Prix de L'Escaut 2nd G.P Kanton Aargau 1 st G.P Rik Van Steenbergen 1st Druivenkoers 2nd Paris - Bruxelles 1st Paris - Tours 1998 (11): 1st Trofeo Luis Puig 3rd Omloop Het Volk 1st Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 1st Stage 6, Paris-Nice 1st Stage 7, Paris-Nice 3rd Dwars door Belgie 3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen 2nd G.P Rik Van Steenbergen 1st Stage 5, Vuelta a Burgos 1999 (4): 3rd Etoile de Bessèges 3rd Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne 1st Stage 2, Paris-Nice 1st Milan-San Remo 2nd G.P E3 Harelbeke 2nd G.P Villafranca de Ordizia 3rd Tour de la région wallonne, overall 1st Stage 4, Tour de la région wallonne 3rd Grand Prix Suisse/Zurich 2nd Paris-Bourges 1st World Cup overallOther profiles |
