Viatcheslav Ekimov

Ekimov in the prologue of the 2006 Tour of California.
Personal information
Full name	Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov
Nickname	Eki
Born	(1966-02-04) 4 February 1966 (age 58) Vyborg, Leningrad Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Weight	69 kg (152 lb; 10 st 12 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road Track
Role	Rider Team manager
Rider type	Time-trialist
Professional teams
1990–1992	Panasonic
1993	Novemail
1994	WordPerfect
1995	Novell
1996	Rabobank
1997–1998	U.S. Postal Service
1999	Amica Chips–Costa de Almeria
2000–2006	U.S. Postal Service
Managerial teams
2009–2011	Team RadioShack
2012–2016	Team Katusha
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (1991) 2 TTT stages (2003, 2004) Vuelta a España 1 individual stage (1999) Stage races Ronde van Nederland (2003) Three Days of De Panne (1996, 2000) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (1997) Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (2000) Züri-Metzgete (1992)
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Men's track cycling Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Track Team Pursuit UCI Track Cycling World Championships 1985 Bassano del Grappa Amateur Men's Individual Pursuit 1986 Colorado Springs Amateur Men's Individual Pursuit 1987 Vienna Men's Team Pursuit 1989 Lyon Amateur Men's Individual Pursuit 1990 Maebashi Professional Men's Individual Pursuit 1991 Stuttgart Men's Points Race 1987 Vienna Amateur Men's Individual Pursuit 1989 Lyon Men's Team Pursuit 1985 Bassano del Grappa Men's Team Pursuit 1986 Colorado Springs Men's Team Pursuit Representing  Russia Men's road bicycle racing Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Road Time Trial 2004 Athens Road Time Trial[1][2]

Viatcheslav Vladimirovich Ekimov (Russian Вячеслав Владимирович Екимов; born 4 February 1966), nicknamed Eki, is a Russian former professional racing cyclist. A triple Olympic gold medalist, he was awarded the title of Russian Cyclist of the Century in 2001.

Biography

Ekimov was born in Vyborg, and started training as a cyclist at age 12 with a bicycle school affiliated with the famous centre of Aleksandr Kuznetsov. He trained in Leningrad at Lokomotiv and later Armed Forces sports society during the Soviet era.

Ekimov won three Olympic gold medals:^[3] in the track team pursuit in Seoul (1988) for the USSR, and in an upset, in the road time trial in Sydney (2000) for Russia. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Ekimov won the silver medal for Russia in the men's road individual time trial, losing to American Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton later admitted to doping and Ekimov, who had raced for many more years than Tyler with the infamous Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel partnership, was promoted to gold.^[4]

Ekimov joined the USPS team in 1997 as its first key international signing, briefly retiring in 2001 before rejoining the team the following year. In the 2003 Tour de France Ekimov placed 10th in the prologue. He was a key force in the winning team time trial effort in stage four and was important to Lance Armstrong's fifth Tour victory both on the flats and in the mountains. He missed the 2005 Tour de France due to injuries received in a training ride with Armstrong in Texas.^[5] During the final stage of the 2006 Tour de France, now racing for the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, he announced that the 2006 Tour would be his last. He was honored by the peloton on the final stage, who allowed him to lead them over the line on the first of the eight laps of the Champs-Élysées. Ekimov started and finished 15 Tours de France, tying him with Lucien Van Impe for the second most Tour finishes, behind Joop Zoetemelk and Sylvain Chavanel.

In September 2006 he finished riding for Discovery, but stayed with the team as Assistant Directeur Sportif to Johan Bruyneel.^[6] He helped guide the Discovery riders during the U.S. Pro Cycling Championships in 2006 as well as the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia.

On 9 September 2009, it was announced he would join Team RadioShack as Directeur Sportif.^[7]

In October 2012, he was announced as the general manager of the Russian Team Katusha–Alpecin.^[8] The UCI, in a letter written to Katusha Team, denied them entrance into the 2013 World Tour. Among the many ethical violations the UCI cited, the appointment of Ekimov was among them for reasons unspecified.^[9] After the end of 2016 season Ekimov stepped down from the role.^[10]

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Giro d'Italia	—	58	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	89
Tour de France	55	42	65	35	36	18	21	44	38	—	55	82	58	76	80	—	82
/ Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	25	—	64	DNF	55	—	—	—	—	—	—