Katusha

Charismatic Team President Andrei Tchmil was satisfied with the results of Team Katusha in its first season in the UCI ProTour but has boosted the strength of the Russian team for 2010 with some successful and experienced riders.

Team Katusha won 26 races in 2009 and also took 36 second places and 14 third places for an impressive total of 76 spots on the podium. Standout victories for Sergey Ivanov, were the Amstel Gold Race classic, a stage in the Tour de France and the Russian national road race title.

Italian teammate Filippo Pozzato also won his country’s national road race title, giving the Katusha team highly visible jerseys in the 2010 peloton. In addition, Pozzato won the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen race in Belgium and was second in Paris-Roubaix after an aggressive spring classics campaign.

Russian riders also impressed. Pavel Brutt won the Tour de Vendée, Nikolay Trusov won a stage at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and then teamed up with Arteom Ovechkin to win the Duo Normand time trial.

In 2010 Team Katusha will also be a major force in stage races thanks to the arrival of Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen. He was seventh overall in both the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France and has the experience to win other stage races on the UCI ProTour calendar.

Also joining Katusha for 2010 is aggressive Russian rider Alexandre Kolobnev. He is an all-round classics rider and was second in the 2009 UCI World road race Championships. Also part of the 2010 Team Katusha line-up for 2010 are Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez, Italy’s Marco Bandiera and talented young Russian Egor Silin.

“I was satisfied with our debut season in 2009 but if we can turn some of our podium places into victories, I’d be a lot happier,” Tchmil said.