Gazprom–RusVelo

Gazprom–RusVelo

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Team information
UCI code	GAZ
Registered	Russia
Founded	2012 (2012)
Discipline	Road
Status	UCI Professional Continental (2012–2019) UCI ProTeam (2020–2022)
Bicycles	Look Cycles
Website	Team home page
Key personnel
General manager	Renat Khamidulin
Team name history
2012–2015 2016–	RusVelo Gazprom–RusVelo
Jersey

Gazprom–RusVelo (UCI team code: GAZ), a part of the Russian Global Cycling Project and sponsored by Gazprom, is a Russian road and track cycling team that suspended its activities in 2022. It was founded in late 2011 and granted UCI Professional Continental status. For its first season 2012 the team signed several ex-Team Katusha riders along with a few ones from Continental Team Itera–Katusha.

RusVelo initially included both men's and women's rosters. The directors are Viatcheslav Ekimov, Oleg Grishkin, Egon van Kessel from the Netherlands, and Australian Henk Vogels. The General Manager was Heiko Salzwedel.

In March 2022 the team's licence was revoked by the UCI following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the same day bicycle manufacturer Look, and wheel provider Corima, both announced the cancellation of their sponsorship of the team. Later that month, the team suspended its activities.

Team history

In December 2012, RusVelo's request for a Professional Continental licence for the 2013 season was denied pending a review. The squad were ultimately awarded a Professional Continental licence on 9 January 2013.

Doping

In 2013 the team endured a spate of doping positives. In March Valery Kaikov for the, cancer-causing, banned compound GW501516 (Endurobol). This was the first recorded positive for Endurobol. In June at the 2013 Russian National Championships Roman Maikin and Artem Ovechkin tested positive for Fenoterol and received a six-month ban Andrey Solomennikov tested positive for asthma medication and received a six-month suspension as well. As a result, the team auto-suspended itself from competition. In June 2015, the team received their fifth positive in less than two years when Petr Ignatenko tested positive for human growth hormone (hGH) in an out-of-competition test on April 8, this is only the second hGH positive since Patrick Sinkewitz returned an adverse analytical finding for the substance.

Team roster

As of 8 February 2022.

Rider Date of birth José Manuel Díaz (ESP) (1995-01-18) 18 January 1995 Marco Canola (ITA) (1988-12-26) 26 December 1988 Giovanni Carboni (ITA) (1995-08-31) 31 August 1995 Nikolay Cherkasov (RUS) (1996-09-26) 26 September 1996 Sergey Chernetskiy (RUS) (1990-04-09) 9 April 1990 Nicola Conci (ITA) (1997-01-05) 5 January 1997 Alessandro Fedeli (ITA) (1996-03-02) 2 March 1996 Michael Kukrle (CZE) (1994-11-17) 17 November 1994 Eirik Lunder (NOR) (1999-06-09) 9 June 1999 Matteo Malucelli (ITA) (1993-10-20) 20 October 1993

Rider Date of birth Denis Nekrasov (RUS) (1997-02-19) 19 February 1997 Artem Nych (RUS) (1995-03-21) 21 March 1995 Andrea Piccolo (ITA) (2001-03-23) 23 March 2001 Petr Rikunov (RUS) (1997-02-24) 24 February 1997 Kevin Rivera (CRC) (1998-06-28) 28 June 1998 Ivan Rovny (RUS) (1987-09-30) 30 September 1987 Cristian Scaroni (ITA) (1997-10-16) 16 October 1997 Dmitry Strakhov (RUS) (1995-05-17) 17 May 1995 Mathias Vacek (CZE) (2002-06-12) 12 June 2002 Ilnur Zakarin (RUS) (1989-09-15) 15 September 1989

Major wins

Main article: List of wins by RusVelo and its successors

National champions

2013

Russian National Time Trial, Ilnur Zakarin

2015

Russian National Time Trial, Artem Ovechkin

2017

Russian National Road Race, Alexander Porsev

2019

Russian National Road Race, Alexander Vlasov

2021

Russian National Road Race, Artem Nych

External links

• Official website