Yaroslav Popovych

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Popovych at the 2009 Tour de France
Personal information
Full nameYaroslav Popovych
Born (1980-01-04) 4 January 1980
Drohobych, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight66 kg (146 lb; 10.4 st)
Team information
Current teamLidl–Trek
DisciplineRoad
Role
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
2002–2004Landbouwkrediet–Colnago
2005–2007Discovery Channel
2008Silence–Lotto
2009Astana
2010–2011Team RadioShack
2012–2016RadioShack–Nissan
Managerial team
2016–Trek–Segafredo
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Young rider classification (2005) 1 individual stage (2006) 2 TTT stages (2005, 2009)

Stage races

Volta a Catalunya (2005)
Medal record
Representing  Ukraine
Men's road bicycle racing
UCI Road World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2001 Lisbon Under-23 road race
Silver medal – second place 2000 Plouay Under-23 road race

Yaroslav Popovych (Ukrainian: Ярослав Попович; born 4 January 1980) is a Ukrainian former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016.

The winner of the under-23 road race at the 2001 UCI Road World Championships, Popovych turned professional in 2002 with Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, where he performed particularly strongly in the Giro d'Italia, finishing third in 2003. Upon joining Discovery Channel in 2005, his focus switched to the Tour de France, where he won the young riders' classification in 2005 and won stage 12 in 2006. When Discovery Channel folded at the end of 2007, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto in 2008 and on to Astana in 2009. Popovych also raced for Team RadioShack in 2010 and 2011. From 2012 until 2016 he rode with the UCI ProTour team Trek–Segafredo.

Career

Early years

Popovych was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. He was considered one of the most promising cyclists while riding in junior and under-23 races after catching 35 victories in 2000 and 2001. He won the Under-23 Men's road race in the 2001 UCI Road World Championships after finishing second the previous year. He also won the Paris–Roubaix edition for under-23 riders and palio del recioto. The Ukrainian turned pro in 2002 by joining the Belgian team Landbouwkrediet–Colnago and delivered some strong showings, most notably in the Giro d'Italia where he finished third in 2003 and fifth in 2004, when he wore the pink jersey during three stages.

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (2005–07)

He joined the Discovery Channel in 2005 and he was considered as a possible successor to Lance Armstrong as team leader. In this same year, Popovych took one of his best victories by winning the Volta a Catalunya, which is an important race before the Tour de France. Along with the rest of the Discovery team, he won stage four team time trial in the Tour de France and showed his potential by winning the young rider classification, while helping Armstrong win his seventh Tour de France at the time.

In the 2006 Tour de France, Popovych was considered one of the Discovery Channel team's four leaders, along with José Azevedo, Paolo Savoldelli and George Hincapie. After failing to be among the best for the overall classification in the Pyrenees mountain stages, Popovych won stage 12 by repeatedly attacking his fellow break-away compatriots Alessandro Ballan, Óscar Freire and Christophe Le Mével. During 2006 season he also won stages at the Vuelta a Castilla y León and Tour de Georgia, where he finished third.

Popovych mainly worked as a domestique during 2007 season, aiding Alberto Contador to win Paris–Nice and the Tour de France. Early in the season, he won the fifth stage in Paris–Nice after attacking 33 kilometres (21 miles) from the finishing line. He was considered as the team leader for the Giro d'Italia, but he withdrew in the twelfth stage after suffering two crashes in the race. In the Tour de France, he finished eighth while working for Discovery Channel team-mates Contador and Levi Leipheimer.

Silence–Lotto (2008)

In 2008, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto squad after Discovery Channel announced that it would cease operations at the end of 2007.

Popovych was recruited as a domestique member of the Tour de France team primarily to support lead rider Cadel Evans, but had a rather disappointing year, with only a 3rd place in Paris–Nice to show for. At the end of the year, it was announced he would team up with his former Discovery manager Johan Bruyneel again in 2009, joining the new Astana team.

Astana (2009)

Popovych leads the Astana team in the chase over Patterson Pass during Stage 3 of the 2009 Tour of California.

In 2009, Popovych and Armstrong joined the Kazakh-based cycling squad Astana, where many other former Discovery Channel riders and staff were also under contract. Popovych acted as a domestique for Contador in Paris–Nice, finishing 23rd himself.

On 15 October 2009 it was reported that Popovych would move to Team RadioShack for the 2010 season.

Team RadioShack (2010)

In 2010 Popovych followed many former Astana riders to the newly created American based squad Team RadioShack.

Doping allegations

In January 2011 Popovych was incriminated in the Floyd Landis doping allegations against the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, after Sports Illustrated magazine reported that in November 2010 his property in Tuscany had been searched by Federal Officials who discovered drug testing documents, medical supplies and performance-enhancing drugs as well as evidence of links to controversial Italian physician Michele Ferrari. Later that day Popovych denied the allegations.

Major results

2000 1st Overall Tour de Nouvelle-Calédonie 1st Gran Premio di Poggiana 2nd Road race, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships 2nd Giro del Belvedere 2nd Coppa Città di Asti 3rd Piccolo Giro di Lombardia 10th Trofeo Alcide Degasperi 2001 1st Road race, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships 1st Trofeo Banca Popolare di Vicenza 1st Giro del Belvedere 1st Gran Premio Palio del Recioto 1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs 2nd Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell 2nd Gran Premio della Liberazione 2nd Trofeo Alcide Degasperi 4th GP Open Campania 9th GP Città di Napoli 2002 1st Poreč Trophy II 1st GP de Genève 3rd Poreč Trophy III 4th Overall Brixia Tour 4th Gran Premio Fred Mengoni 5th Poreč Trophy I 6th Overall Tour de Wallonie 9th Overall Tour de l'Avenir 10th Tre Valli Varesine 2003 3rd Overall Giro d'Italia 3rd Overall Tour de Wallonie 5th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali 6th Coppa Ugo Agostoni 7th Overall Tour de Romandie 7th Giro della Provincia di Lucca 9th Overall Giro della Liguria 10th Giro dell'Emilia 2004 1st Trofeo Androni Giocattoli 5th Overall Giro d'Italia Held Maglia Rosa for Stages 13–16 8th Overall Regio-Tour 9th Overall Tour of Austria 10th Firenze–Pistoia 2005 1st Overall Volta a Catalunya 4th LuK Challenge Chrono (with Paolo Savoldelli) Tour de France 1st Young rider classification 1st Stage 4 (TTT) 2006 1st Stage 12 Tour de France 1st Stage 2 (ITT) Vuelta a Castilla y León 3rd Overall Tour de Georgia 1st Stage 2 4th GP Ouest–France 2007 1st Stage 5 Paris–Nice 8th Overall Tour de France Stage 9 Combativity award 2008 3rd Overall Paris–Nice 2009 1st Stage 4 (TTT) Tour de France 2013 9th Gent–Wevelgem

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
A pink jersey Giro d'Italia 12 3 5 — — DNF — 15 — 63 — 133 — —
A yellow jersey Tour de France — — — 12 25 8 24 41 85 DNF 76 — — —
A red jersey Vuelta a España — — — — — — 52 — — — — 85 115 132
Legend
— Did not compete
DNF Did not finish

References

  1. ^ "RadioShack-Nissan-Trek announces lineup for 2012". VeloNews. Competitor Group, Inc. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  2. ^ "La Parigi-Roubaix sarà l'ultima corsa della carriera di Yaroslav Popovych". Archived from the original on 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  3. ^ Yaroslav Popovych rijdt zondag laatste wedstrijd
  4. ^ "Trek Factory Racing (TFR) – USA". UCI World Tour. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Yaroslav Popovych bio". team.discovery.com. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  6. ^ "Interviews – Tour de France 2006 – Johan Bruyneel". letour.fr. 23 June 2006. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  7. ^ "Discovery Channel names Tour roster". cyclingnews.com. 6 June 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  8. ^ "Popovych rides glorious day away". cyclingnews.com. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  9. ^ a b "Predictor-Lotto signs Popovych". cyclingnews.com. 5 September 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  10. ^ More RadioShack transfers confirmed
  11. ^ "Most Popular". CNN. 24 January 2011.
  12. ^ Popovych denies Sports Illustrated details
  13. ^ Hood, Andrew (22 May 2005). "Popovych delivers big win at Cataluyna". Archived from the original on 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2007-09-22.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yaroslav Popovych.
Tour de France young rider classification winners