Team Katusha the Protagonists

It will be an historical July for Team Katusha and, after all, for the whole cycling world. For the first time in its centuries-old history, Tour de France will have a 100% Russian professional team.

Every rider will be Russian, all the staff and the Sport Director too, Dmitriy Konychev which, at Grand Boucle, will have a double position: the Team Katusha's trainer and the Russian National Olympics trainer. With him, in the team car, there will be also the experienced, former cycling champion, Gennady Mikhaylov.

A crucial moment for the Andrei Tchmil's team, the crowning achievement of an ambitious project that, after three years, reached one of its most important results.

"Being at Tour de France - explains the Team Manager - is always something to be proud of. But being there with a 100% Russian team represents, in the sporting point of view, an historical event. We know that, for this reason too, we will be under the spotlight, and so we'll try our best to be a credit to the country we represent. In the worldwide globalization era, managing to introduce, in the most important world cycling competition, a team that represents, in all of its riders and staff, a single nation is, let's say, a little masterpiece of technical planning we're very proud of. A project that, today, reached another prestigious goal, also thanks to the great help and proximity of the Itera's President, Igor Makarov which followed, step by step, its full development. Anyways, beyond every due celebration, we're not here to simply assist at the competition. The main goal, as always, is to be a protagonist. Our performance, when we'll cut the finishing line in Champs Elysees, won't be judged by wins, but instead by the courage and the commitment we put in every single stage".

The Team Katusha's roster for Tour de France 2011 will be as follows:

Pavel Brutt (new National Russian Champion), Denis Galimzyanov, Vladimir  Gusev, Mikhail  Ignatyev (new National Russian ITT Champion), Vladimir  Isaychev, Vladimir  Karpets, Alexander Kolobnev, Egor  Silin, Yuriy  Trofimov.  Sport Directors: Dmitriy Konychev, Gennady Mikhailov, Bart Leysen