The Pro-Team

Team Overview

Year 2013

10 December 2012–

The UCI Licence Commission has stopped the validity of the UCI WorldTour license of Katusha Team, which was issued earlier till 2015.

15 December 2012 –

Katusha Team has filed a lawsuit to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne aiming to dispute the decision of the UCI Licence Commission, who rejected the 2013 UCI WorldTour license request of Katusha Team.

19 December 2012–

Official presentation of World Tour Katusha Team-2013 in Brescian Palazzo della Loggia, Italy.
The roster of the team in 2013 includes 30 riders:

Maxim Belkov, Pavel Brutt, Sergei Chernetckii, Vladimir Gusev, Petr Ignatenko, Mikhail Ignatyev, Vladimir Isaychev, Dmitry Kozonchuk, Alexander Kolobnev, Timofey Kritskiy, Viacheslav Kuznetsov, Denis Menchov, Alexander Porsev, Yuriy Trofimov, Alexey Tsatevich, Eduard Vorganov, Anton Vorobyev (all – Russia); Xavier Florencio, Alberto Losada, Daniel Moreno, Joaquim Rodriguez, Angel Vicioso (all – Spain); Giampaolo Caruso, Luca Paolini (both – Italy); Marco Haller (Austria), Alexander Kristoff (Norway), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Belarus), Rudiger Selig (Germany), Gatis Smukulis (Latvia) and Simon Spilak (Slovenia). Main sports directors of the team were named Valerio Piva and Dmitriy Konychev. As General Manager of Katusha Team-2013 was presented Viacheslav Ekimov.

14 January 2013 –

The UCI has registered Katusha Team as a professional continental team for 2013.

30 January 2013 –

The CAS has announced the date of hearings regarding Katusha Team appeal against the decision of the UCI Licence Commission to withdraw its 2013 UCI WorldTour license. The date of hearings was named 8th February 2013.

8 February 2013 –

The CAS hearings regarding the case of Katusha Team against the UCI Licence Commission has been held.

15 February 2013 –

The CAS has fully satisfied the appeal of Katusha Team against the UCI Licence Commission decision wthdrawing its 2013 WorldTour license. The decision of 10th December 2012 about rejection of Katusha’s WorldTour license was annulated, the team was granted with the 2013 UCI WorldTour license and its rights as the second team in the World ranking were restored.

3 March 2013 –

Katusha Team came out to the start of its first 2013 UCI WorldTour race “Paris – Nice” since its WorldTour license was restored.

The list of victories:

Joaquim Rodriguez – Tour of Oman (4th stage)
Luca Paolini – Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Alexey Tsatevich – Le Samyn
Joaquim Rodriguez – Tirreno – Adriatico (5th stage)
Katusha Team – Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali (1st (b) stage)
Alexander Kristoff – Driedaagse De Panne – Koksijde (3rd a stage)
Rudiger Selig – Volta Limburg Classic
Simon Spilak – GP Miguel Indurain
Daniel Moreno – La Fleche Wallonne
Simon Spilak – Tour de Romandie (4th stage)
Simon Spilak – Rund Um Den Finanzplatz Eschborn – Frankfurt
Luca Paolini – Giro d’Italia (3rd stage)
Maxim Belkov – Giro d’Italia (9th stage)
Alexander Kristoff – Tour of Norway (1st stage)
Alexander Kristoff – Tour of Norway (2nd stage)

Year 2012

30 January 2012 –

Official presentation of World Tour Katusha Team-2012 in the main office of MGK ITERA in Moscow.
The roster of the team in 2012 includes 29 riders:
Maxim Belkov (from Vacansoleil), Pavel Brutt, Denis Galimzyanov, Vladimir Gusev, Mikhail Ignatyev, Petr Ignatenko, Alexander Porsev, Yuriy Trofimov, Eduard Vorganov, Timofey Kritskiy (from Itera-Katusha), Vladimir Isaychev, Denis Menchov (from Geox), Alexey Tsatevich (from Itera-Katusha) – all – Russia; Joan Horrach Ripoll, Xavier Florencio (from Geox), Oscar Freire (from Rabobank), Alberto Losada, Daniel Moreno, Joaquim Rodriguez, Angel Vicioso (from Androni Giocattoli) – all – Spain; Giampaolo Caruso, Luca Paolini – all – Italy; Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Belarus), Maxime Vantomme (Belgium), Alexander Kristoff (from BMC) (Norway), Rudiger Selig (from Leopard Trek) (Germany), Marco Haller (from Adria Mobil) (Austria), Simon Spilac (from Lampre) (Slovenia), Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) (Latvia). Main sports directors of the team were named Valedio Piva, Christian Henn and Dmitriy Konychev.

1 March 2012 –

Alexander Kolobnev was cleared in Tour de France doping case by CAS.

28 March 2012 –

Katusha Team signed a contract for the current season with Russian rider Alexander Kolobnev.

18 April 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez for the first time in his career won classics race Fleche Wallone.

9 May 2012 –

Katusha for the first time in Grand-Tours reached second podium place in team time trial at 4th stage of Giro d’Italia.

15 May 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez for the first time in his career won a stage (10th stage) of Giro d’Italia. In the same day, for the first time in its history Katusha’s rider Joaquim Rodriguez became overall leader of Giro d’Italia, receiving the Pink jersey.

20 May 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez comes back in the Pink jersey of Giro d’Italia after loosing it during one day before.

23 May 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez for the firs time in his history wins Giro d’Italia stage (17th stage), wearing the Pink jersey.

27 May 2012 –

Katusha’s leader Joaquim Rodriguez becomes vice-champion of Giro d’Italia 2012. In the same day Rodriguez for the first time wins point classification and the Red jersey of Giro d’Italia.

10 June 2012 –

Daniel Moreno repeats the success of Joaquim Rodriguez, winning 2 stages at Criterium Dauphine Libere (5th June – Dani won 2nd stage, while 10th June he took 7th stage).

10 June 2012 –

Rudiger Selig for the first time in Katusha Team took second podium place in German ProRace Berlin.

13 June 2012 –

Vladimir Isaychev for the first time in his career and in the history of Katusha Team won 5th stage of Tour de Suisse.

24 June 2012 –

Eduard Vorganov for the first time in his career won Elite road race of Russian Road Championships in Voronezh. It was his first ever pro victory.

8 July 2012 –

Alexey Tsatevich for the first time in his career took a podium place at professional race, becoming 2nd at the last 8th stage of Tour of Austria.

5 August 2012 –

Daniel Moreno took his debut professional general classification victory, winning overall classification of Vuelta a Burgos.

8 September 2012 –

Denis Menchov became first Russian rider of Katusha Team, who won a stage at Vuelta a Espana – he won 20th queen’s stage with a top finish at Bola del Mundo.

9 September 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez made his and team’s debut at the final podium of Vuelta a Espana – Rodriguez finished 3rd in general classification of the race.

29 September 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez took his greatest career victory at Il Lombardia, which became first ever monumental classics for Katusha Team.

8 October 2012 –

Thee times Olympic Champion Viatcheslav Ekimov became new general manager of Katusha Team. He replaced German Hans-Michael Holczer on that position.

12 October 2012 –

Marco Haller opened his score of professional victories with a nice win at 4th stage of Tour of Beijing.

13 October 2012 –

Joaquim Rodriguez became No.1 in the World, taking 1st position in the final UCI World Tour individual ranking, repeating his result of 2010. In the same day, Katusha Team became No.2 in the World with its second position in the UCI World Tour team’s ranking, for the first time in its history.

The list of victories:

Oscar Freire – Tour Down Under (4th stage)
Oscar Freire – Vuelta a Andalucia (3rd stage)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Andalucia (4th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Tirreno – Adriatico (6th stage)
Alexander Kristoff – Driedaagse De Panne (3rd stage)
Pavel Brutt – Volta Limburg Classic
Daniel Moreno – GP Miguel Indurain
Denis Galimzyanov – Circuit de la Sarthe (1st stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta al Pais Vasco (4th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta al Pais Vasco (5th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Fleche Wallonne
Joaquim Rodriguez – Giro d’Italia (10th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Giro d’Italia (17th stage)
Daniel Moreno – Criterium Dauphine Libere (2nd stage)
Daniel Moreno – Criterium Dauphine Libere (7th stage)
Vladimir Isaychev – Tour de Suisse (5th stage)
Gatis Smukulis – Latvian Road Championships (ITT)
Denis Menchov – Russian Road Champioships (ITT)
Eduard Vorganov – Russian Road Championships (RR)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Burgos (1st stage)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Burgos (2nd stage)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Burgos (GC)
Alexander Kristoff – Tour of Denmark (4th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana (6th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana (12th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana (14th stage)
Denis Menchov – Vuelta a Espana (20th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Il Lombardia
Marco Haller – Tour of Beijing (4th stage)

Year 2011

26 January 2011 –

Official presentation of 4 teams of the Russian Global Cycling Project: World Tour Katusha Team, continental team Itera-Katusha, youth team Itera-Katusha Under 23 and youth team Itera-Katusha Under 21 had place in Moscow, in the main office of MGK ITERA. With some hours earlier, Prime-minister of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin meets with riders of Katusha Team.
During the presentation 30 riders of Katusha Team were presented:
Alexander Kolobnev, Vladimir Karpets, Sergey Ivanov, Mikhail Ignatyev, Vladimir Gusev, Yuri Trofimov, Pavel Brutt, Denis Galimzyanov, Eduard Vorganov, Egor Silin, Artem Ovechkin, Nikolay Trusov, Vladimir Isaychev, Arkimedes Arguelyes, Alexander Porsev, Petr Ignatenko, Alexander Mironov (all – Russia); Joaquim Rodriguez, Joan Horrach, Alberto Losada, Daniel Moreno (all – Spain); Filippo Pozzato, Giampaolo Caruso, Luca Paolini, Danilo Di Luca (all – Italy); Stijn Vandenbergh, Maxime Vantomme, Leif Hoste (all – Belgium), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Belarus), Alexandr Pliuschin (Moldova).

6 March 2011 –

During the Annual UEC Congress in Zrece, Slovenia, Igor Makarov, president of Russian Cycling Federation was elected as the representative of Europe in the UCI Management Committee.

2 July 2011 –

For the first time in world’s sports full completed of Russian riders Katusha Team started Tour de France.

12 July 2011 –

Russian rider Alexander Kolobnev of Katusha Team decided to retire from Tour de France and to autosuspend after his doping-probe A from 5th stage (6th July) returned positive for hydrochlorotyazide.

20 July 2011 –

Katusha Team temporary suspender Alexander Kolobnev after his doping-probe B from 5th stage (6th July) of Tour de France returned positive for hydrochlorotyazide.

27 August 2011 –

Joaquim Rodriguez from Katusha Team became overall leader and the Red jersey owner after stage 8th of Vuelta a Espana.

15 September 2011 – In Moscow, in the main office of MGK ITERA the head of the Russian Global Cycling Project Igor Makarov presented German specialist Hans-Michael Holczer as new general manager of World Tour Katusha Team.

23 September 2011 –

Igor Makarov, president of Russian Cycling Federation was elected as a member of the UCI Management Committee during the Annual UCI Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

16 – 20 October 2011 –

The first training camp of new Katusha Team-2012 was held in Italy at Lago del Garda. New general manager Hans-Michael Holczer presented new members of team’s management: head of sports department Christian Henn, head of sports directors Valerio Piva, scientific coach Sebastian Weber, technical manager Michael Rich, team’s coach Erik Zabel and executive manager Slawomir Blasziczyk.

17 October 2011 –

Katusha Team finished its 2011 season at 12th place in the UCI World Tour team’s ranking. Joaquim Rodriguez finished 3rd in the UCI World Tour individual ranking. Katusha scored 22 victories, 22 second and 23 third places.

The list of victories:

Pavel Brutt – Classica Sarda
Denis Galimzyanov – Driedaagse de Panne (2nd stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta al Paìs Vasco (1st stage)
Pavel Brutt – Tour de Romandie (1st stage)
Denis Galimzyanov – Tour of Luxembourg (1st stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Criterium du Dauphinè (6th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Criterium du Dauphinè (7th stage)
Mikhail Ignatyev – Russian National Championships (ITT)
Pavel Brutt – Russian National Championships (RR)
Aliaksandr Kuchynski – Belarus National Championships
Alexandr Pliuschin – Moldovan National Championships
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Burgos (2nd stage)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Burgos (4th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Burgos (GC)
Daniel Moreno – Vuelta a Espana (4th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana (5th stage)
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana (8th stage)
Denis Galimzyanov – Paris-Bruxelles
Denis Galimzyanov – Tour of Beijing (5th stage)
Filippo Pozzato – GP Begelli
Daniel Moreno – Giro del Piemonte
Egor Silin – Jayco Herald Sun (4th stage)

16 November 2011 –

Viatcheslav Ekimov became advisor of Igor Makarov in questions of professional cycling, as well as curator of the Russian Global Cycling Project.

22 November 2011 –

Russian Katusha Team received official confirmation about new World Tour license for next 4 years (2012 – 2015) from the UCI.

Year 2010

30 January 2010 –

Official presentation of World Tour Katusha Team-2010 took place in Italy, Desenzano del Garda, in Teatro Alberti. During the presentation was presented 27 riders of Katusha-2010:
Marco Bandiera, Laszlo Bodrogi, Alexander Botcharov, Pavel Brutt, Denis Galimzyanov, Joan Horrach, Mikhail Ignatyev, Sergey Ivanov, Timofey Kritsky, Vladimir Karpets, Robbie McEwen, Luca Mazzanti, Danilo Napolitano, Evgeny Petrov, Alexandr Pliuschin, Filippo Pozzato, Joachin Rodrigues, Egor Silin, Nikolay Trusov, Stijn Vandenbergh, Maxime Vantomme, Kim Kirchen, Eduard Vorganov, Artiom Ovechkin, Nikita Eskov, Sergey Klimov, Alexander Kolobnev.

6 February 2010 –

Katusha Team announced contract signing for current season with Unkainian rider Mykhaylo Khalilov.

28 March 2010 –

Russian Katusha Team for the first time in its history won final team’s classification of the UCI World Tour race Volta a Catalunya.

6 April 2010 –

Katusha announced contract signing for the current season with Italian rider Giampaolo Caruso.

5 May 2010 –

Katusha Tea, announced contract signing for the current season with Russian rider Vladimir Gusev.

19 May 2010 –

Russian rider Evgeny Petrov for the first time in Katusha’s history won a stage (11th stage) of Giro d’Italia in L’Aquila. Next day Filippo Pozzato repeated, winning 12th stage of Giro.

1 June 2010 –

Katusha Team for the first time became Nr. 1 in the UCI World Tour team’s ranking.

14 June 2010 –

Vuelta a Espana organization invited Katusha Team

16 June 2010 –

During the Russian Cycling Federation Annual Congress in Moscow Igor Makarov, head of MGK ITERA was elected as new president of Russian Cycling Federation for next 4 years.

16 July 2010 –

Joaquim Rodriguez as Katusha’s rider for the first time in his career won a stage (12th stage) of Tour de France.

28 August 2010 –

Katusha Team debuted at Vuelta a Espana.

7 September 2010 –

For the first time, Katusha’s rider Joaquim Rodriguez became overall leader of Grand-Tour – he became the Red jersey owner as the leader of Vuelta a Espana.

11 September 2010 –

Joaquim Rodriguez won for Katusha Team first ever stage at Vuelta a Espana (14th stage).

13 September 2010 –

Joaquim Rodriguez once again became the overall leader of Vuelta a Espana.

19 September 2010 –

Katusha Team won final team’s classification of Vuelta a Espana.

24 September 2010 –

Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Russian Federation with a telegram congratulate Katusha Team with overall team’s victory at Vuelta a Espana.

18 September 2010 –

Joaquim Rodriguez, Katusha Team’s rider became Nr.1 in the UCI World Tour individual ranking 2010. In the same day Katusha finished placed 5th in the UCI World Tour team’s ranking.

15 – 28 November 2010 –

Katusha Team organized a training camp in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It was the first time when a World Tour team did a training camp in Turkmenistan.

- Katusha Team in 2010 won 20 races, taking 27 second and 20 third more podium places.

The list of victories in 2010:

Robbie McEwen – Trofeo Palma de Mallorca
Mikhail Ignatyev – Tirreno-Adriatico, 6 stage
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Catalunya, general classification
Joaquim Rodriguez – GP Miguel Indurain
Joaquim Rodriguez – Tour of Pays Basque, 5 stage
Danilo Napolitano – Four days de Dunkerque, 2 stage
Evgeny Petrov – Giro d’Italia, 11 stage
Filippo Pozzato – Giro d’Italia, 12 stage
Filippo Pozzato – Franco Ballerini’s day
Alexandr Pliuschin – Moldavian National Championships, road race
Vladimir Gusev – Russian National Championships, ITT
Alexander Kolobnev – Russian National Championships, road race
Joaquim Rodriguez – Tour de France, 12 stage
Danilo Napolitano -Tour de Wallonie, 1 stage
Katusha Team – Vuelta a Burgos, 3 stage
Robbie McEwen – Eneco Tour, 1 stage
Alexander Botcharov – Tour du Limuzin, 3 stage
Joaquim Rodriguez – Vuelta a Espana, 14 stage
Artem Ovechkin/Alexandr Pliuschin – Duo Normand
Filippo Pozzato – Gelard World Sun

Year 2009

18 January 2009 –

first official start of Katusha Team in Australia, Cancer Council Classic, a prologue of ProTour stage race Tour Down Under. In the same time, this stage brought Russian team the first ever victory with success of Robbie McEwen, who won Cancer Council Classic.

29 January 2009 –

Giro d’Italia organizers announced the list of the teams, which included for the first time in its history Russian team Katusha.

17 March 2009 –

Tour de France organizers invited Katusha Team.

19 April 2009 –

Russian champion Serguei Ivanov, a rider of Katusha Team won famous classics race Amstel Gold Race in Holland. It was very first Russian victory of Katusha.

20 April 2009 –

Katusha Team for the first time reaches 3rd place in the UCI Pro Tour team’s ranking.

4 May 2009 –

Katusha Team for the first time reaches 2nd place in the UCI Pro Tour team’s ranking.

9 May 2009 –

Katusha Team starts its first ever Grand-Tour – Giro d’Italia.

4 July 2009 –

Katusha Team for the first time in its history starts the main world’s race Tour de France.

18 July 2009 –

Serguei Ivanov, as Russian champion, wins 14th stage of Tour de France.

- In the final UCI Pro Tour team’s ranking Katusha Team finished at 10th place.

- Katusha Team won 26 races, took 36 second and 14 third podium places (totally – 76 prize-winning places during the season).

- The list of victories:

Robbie McEwen – Cancer Council Classic
Gert Steegmans – Trofeo Mallorca
Robbie McEwen – Trofeo Cala Millor
Antonio Colom – Trofeo Bunyola
Antonio Colom – Challenge Mallorca, general classification
Danilo Napolitano – Vuelta a Andalucia/Ruta del Sol, 1 stage
Gert Steegmans – Vuelta a Andalucia/Ruta del Sol, 2 stage
Antonio Colom – Volta ao Algarve, 3 stage
Danilo Napolitano – Driedaagse van West Vlaanderen, 2 stage
Antonio Colom – Paris-Nice, 8 stage
Danilo Napolitano – Settimana Ciclistica Coppi e Bartali, 1 stage
Filippo Pozzato – E3-Prijs Vlaanderen
Filippo Pozzato – Driedaagse De Panne, 1 stage
Sergey Ivanov – Amstel Gold Race
Robbie McEwen – Tour de Picardie, 1a stage
NIkolay Trusov – Volta a Catalunya, 5 stage
Sergey Ivanov – Tour de Belgique, 1 stage
Danilo Napolitano – Tour de Luxemburg, 1 stage
Sergey Ivanov – Russian National Championships, road race
Filippo Pozzato – Italian National Championships, road race
Sergey Ivanov – Tour de France, 14 stage
Filippo Pozzato – Giro del Veneto
Ben Swift – Tour of Britain, 7 stage
Nikolay Trusov/Artem Ovechkin – Duo Normand
Filippo Pozzato – Memorial Cimurri
Pavel Brutt – Tour de Vendée

Year 2008

Spring – Summer 2008 –: the idea of deepest changes and formation of the strong strategy of Russian cycling development, expressed by Igor Makarov, head of the Board of Directors of MGK ITERA, supported by Alexey Miller, president of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, and Sergey Chemezov, general director of Rostechnology, have got its shape and content as created Russian Global Cycling Project.
Summer 2008 –: the process of realization of the first part of the Russian Global Cycling Project – the formation and registration of the first ever Russian Pro Tour cycling team.
16 June 2008 –: first announce about creation of first Russian Pro Tour cycling team named KATUSHA.
1 September 2008 –: official announce about creation of first Russian Pro Tour cycling team Katusha, which will be consist of the best Russian riders as well as some European cycling stars.
24 November 2008 –: Russian team Katusha officially obtain the UCI Pro Tour license for next 3 years, from 2009 to 2011.
23 December 2008 –: first official presentation of Katusha Team had place in the main office of MGK ITERA in Moscow, Russia. First roster of the team included 14 Russian riders and 13 European riders (totally – 27 riders). Andrei Tchmil was named as the first general manager of the team.
Katusha Team’s roster in 2009 was the following:: Vladimir Karpets, Alexander Botcharov, Sergey Ivanov, Mikhail Ignatyev, Evgeny Petrov, Alexander Serov, Pavel Brutt, Denis Galimzyanov, Nikolay Trusov, Sergey Klimov, Nikita Eskov, Alexey Markov, Ivan Rovny, Gennady Mikhaylov (all – Russia); Robbie McEwen (Australia); Filippo Pozzato, Danilo Napolitano, Luca Nazzanti (all – Italy); Gert Steegmans, Stijn Vandenbergh, Maxime Vantomme, Kenny DeHaes (all – Belgium); Antonio Colom, Joan Horrach (both – Spain); Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary); Christian Pfannberger (Austlia) and Ben Swift (Great Britain). Main sports directors were named Serge Parsani and Dmitriy Konychev.