Today in the Spanish town of Calpe on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the official presentation of the 2015 Russian WorldTour Team Katusha was held.
During the presentation the 2014 season was summed up, the main aims and goals for the upcoming season were outlined, as well as the presentation of the full line-up of riders for the Russian team.
- The last season was full of bright and unforgettable events. Indeed, in some moments of the year we had some bad luck, but first of all we remember our beautiful victories and great successes. Milano – Sanremo and the Tour de France, Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Romandie, Volta a Catalunya and Vattenfall Cyclassics, the Russian Championships and the Norwegian races – these are the memories of Katusha’s 2014 season. We spent a solid year in the WorldTour, and now we are working hard to prepare for the new and 7th season of our team. We have set up some ambitious goals and we are looking forward to reaching them. Among the main purposes of the team, first of all we have to mention the successful performances of our Russian riders in the WorldTour races. The 2015 season is a pre-Olympic year and we will do everything possible to earn Olympic quotas for Russia. In addition, among our other goals – we hope to see successful performances from our riders in the classics races, and in stage races as well as the Grand Tours. The Katusha roster has been strengthened significantly and I am sure we can realize our plans, - said general manager of Team Katusha, Viacheslav Ekimov.
The presentation was attended by honored guests of the team, sponsors and partners of the Russian Global Cycling Project, as well as representatives of the Russian and European mass media.
For Team Katusha the 2015 season will be the 7th season in the highest league of world cycling.
The line-up of Team Katusha in 2015 will be the following:
Maxim Belkov, Sergei Chernetckii, Vladimir Isaychev, Pavel Kochetkov, Alexander Kolobnev, Dmitriy Kozonchuk, Viacheslav Kuznetsov, Sergey Lagutin, Aleksandr Porsev, Egor Silin, Iurii Trofimov, Alexey Tsatevich, Eduard Vorganov, Anton Vorobyev, Ilnur Zakarin (all – Russia), Joaquim Rodriguez, Daniel Moreno, Angel Vicioso, Alberto Losada (all – Spain), Jacopo Guarnieri, Giampaolo Caruso, Luca Paolini (all – Italy), Alexander Kristoff, Sven Erik Bystrøm (both – Norway), Tiago Machado (Portugal), Gatis Smukulis (Latvia), Simon Špilak (Slovenia), Rüdiger Selig (Germany) and Marco Haller (Austria).
Sports directors of the team in 2015 are: José Azevedo, Dmitry Konyshev, Torsten Schmidt, Gennady Mikhaylov, Claudio Cozzi and Xavier Florencio.
Photo credit: @Tim De Waele
