Katusha names team for World Championships

Image 1 of 3

Katusha has named their team for the team time trial World Championships this Sunday. Seven riders have been named, with six going on to compete in the event. The team consist almost entirely of Russian riders, with many of their top foreign riders choosing to sit the event out as they save themselves for the road race.

Four-time Latvian time trial champion Gatis Smukulis is the only non-Russian named in the line-up and is likely to be one of the team’s key riders, as will Russian time trial champion Anton Vorobyev. At 23 Vorobyev is the youngest member of the team and turned professional with Katusha in 2013, after winning the Under23 world time trial title. This will be Vorobyev’s first time racing as a senior at the World Championships, as Katusha look to improve on their 11th place from last season.

Joining Smukulis and Vorobyev will be former Russian time trial champion Vladimir Isaychev and Maxim Belkov, who won a stage of the Giro d’Italia last season. Pavel Brutt and Vladimir Gusev will be the experienced heads in what is quite a young team. Gusev is yet another of the former Russian champions in the list of seven. Viacheslac Kuznetsov rounds out the seven selected riders.

Team Katusha for World Championships: Maxim Belkov, Pavel Brutt, Vladimir Isaychev, Gatis Smukulis, Anton Vorobyev, Vladimir Gusev and Viacheslav Kuznetsov

To subscribe to the Cyclingnews video channel click here