About Me

Beginning

My cycling journey began when, while riding my street bike, I was stopped by a cycling coach and asked if I wanted to enrol into a cycling sports school. Five years later I was talent-scouted and offered a place in the Center for Olympic Development “Titan” virtually becoming a full time professional racer at the age of 17.

National Team Selection

The Spartan’s training regime and advanced training methodology used by the Titan’s head coach, helped me progress from an unknown club racer to a national team candidate in about 6 months after I joined the team. At the national team selection trials, out of 5 stages I won 3 and was given a spot on a national team with the aim to compete at the UCI Junior World’s in team time trial and road races which I did, winning gold in a team time trial. This led to a place in the top tier elite national team where I trained and raced with Olympic and World champions and winners of the Peace Race, the crème de la crème of the professional Soviet road cycling.

For the next several years, I was part of the TTT national development program and competed at high level national and international races, aiming to make a selection for the 1988 Olympic Games. This did not eventuate and I switched my focus on ‘classic’ one day road races, winning Ukrainian national road title in 1989. As the pressure to qualify for the Olympic Games eased off, I was able to finish a Bachelor’s degree in Human Movement between training camps and races.

Goodbye Motherland

As many racers of my generation in the USSR, I found myself wondering what to do with my cycling career as the ‘mighty’ Soviet system was crashing down on us all, erasing our incomes and savings, destroying many races around the country and indeed in the whole of the Eastern Europe where we competed a lot at the time. I headed West and turned myself into a road racing mercenary, racing as many races as possible to make a living with the prize money. The tough life style took its toll and I decided to retire at the end of the ’92 season.

Early in 1993, I came to Montreal hoping to start a new life chapter outside of cycling but a deal I could not refuse compelled me to race for another 2 full seasons for a Montreal based team. My background and European racing experience made these 2 last seasons the most enjoyable of my whole career with a lot of exciting, hard fought victories.

The End is the New Beginning

As all good things eventually tend to end, I signed off with a 3rd place in one of the spring races in 1996 and quit at the age of 30 to start a new career in web development and design. This went on for quite some time, included a move to Australia in 1997, until, on one of those days, I stopped what I was doing and returned back to cycling, this time as a coach. Resuming racing wasn’t far away either once I got involved with bikes again. I started racing in Elite and Masters categories at the ripe age of 41 after not touching a bike for 12 years.

I’m currently coaching a number of Brisbane based cyclists of different gender, ability and experience. I’ve decided to extend my education by enrolling into a Health Sciences degree at the University of Queensland and am trying to harmonize raising 4 kids with my wife, working and studying all at the same time. Since no one in Brisbane can pronounce my surname, I’m simply known around here as The Russian.