The official presentation of the Russian WorldTour Katusha Team has been held in Koblenz, Germany, at the headquarters of cycling company Canyon. Katusha has presented its line-up for the season of 2014.
Along with the presentation, Katusha Team has also celebrated its 5-year anniversary.
The presentation was attended by guests of the team, sponsors and partners of the Russian Global Cycling Project, as well as representatives of the Russian and European mass media.
The founder and head of the Russian Global Cycling Project, and President of Itera International Group of Companies, Igor MAKAROV warmly congratulated Katusha Team:
“Today we do not just celebrate the fifth anniversary of our main Russian cycling team and open the season of 2014 for Katusha, but we also celebrate a jubilee of the Russian Global Cycling Project. In the past five years, the Katusha Team, as well as the entire Project, have come a long way and gone through many trials.
Fortunately, they have received a hundred times more success and victories in return. First of all, I want to thank our athletes, the Katusha riders, for the success they have achieved and their victories! I thank the sports directors and the entire technical personnel of the team for the immaculate job done along the way to our victories! I can tell you with all confidence that good luck smiled on us for all of these five years.
The Katusha Team has gained a great number of devoted fans, while the support for us on the part of the press made us confident that we had chosen the right track. Certainly, we cannot imagine our Team without our reliable partners, especially such powerful and well-known ones as Gazprom, Rostec, Itera and Canyon. We hope we shall continue together! After all, the main thing we have learned in these five years is that while we are united, we are invincible!”
In the new season, Katusha Team will be represented by:
Maxim Belkov, Pavel Brutt, Sergei Chernetckii, Vladimir Gusev, Petr Ignatenko, Mikhail Ignatyev, Vladimir Isaychev, Dmitriy Kozonchuk, Alexander Kolobnev, Pavel Kochetkov, Viacheslav Kuznetsov, Aleksandr Porsev, Alexander Rybakov, Egor Silin, Iurii Trofimov, Alexey Tsatevich, Eduard Vorganov, Anton Vorobyev (all – Russia); 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).
In addition, the sports directors of Katusha Team also were presented: Jose Azevedo, Dmitry Konyshev, Gennady Mikhaylov, Torsten Schmidt, Claudio Cozzi, Uwe Peschel and Xavier Florencio.
Ron Callahan is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.