The Most Famous

CYCLISTS from Russia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Russian Cyclists. The pantheon dataset contains 1,613 Cyclists, 35 of which were born in Russia. This makes Russia the birth place of the 12th most number of Cyclists behind United States, and Switzerland.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Russian Cyclists of all time. This list of famous Russian Cyclists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Russian Cyclists.

Photo of Viatcheslav Ekimov

1. Viatcheslav Ekimov (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 49.41, Viatcheslav Ekimov is the most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

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.

Photo of Anatoly Chukanov

2. Anatoly Chukanov (1954 - 2021)

With an HPI of 49.20, Anatoly Chukanov is the 2nd most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Anatoly Alekseevich Chukanov (Russian: Анатолий Алексеевич Чуканов; 10 May 1954 – 12 June 2021) was a Soviet and Russian cyclist. He was part of the Soviet team that won the 100 km team time trial at the 1976 Summer Olympics and 1977 UCI Road World Championships. He was born in Russia, but later moved to Ukraine. After retirement he was teaching sport-related subjects at the East Ukraine Volodymyr Dahl National University. He was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour.

Photo of Sergei Sukhoruchenkov

3. Sergei Sukhoruchenkov (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 48.19, Sergei Sukhoruchenkov is the 3rd most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Sergei Nikolaevich Sukhoruchenkov (Russian: Серге́й Николаевич Сухорученков, born 10 August 1956) is a former Soviet and Russian cyclist and Olympic Champion. He won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, in the road race. He won the Peace Race twice, in both 1979 and 1984. Sukhoruchenkov won the 1990 edition of the Vuelta Ciclista de Chile. His daughter Olga Zabelinskaya is also a cyclist and won two bronze medals in the 2012 Olympic Games, in both the road race and the individual time trial; as well as the silver medal in the individual time trial of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Photo of Andrei Tchmil

4. Andrei Tchmil (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 48.07, Andrei Tchmil is the 4th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Andrei Tchmil (born 22 January 1963) is a retired Soviet (until 1991), Moldovan (1992–1994), Ukrainian (1994–1998) and Belgian (since 1998) professional road bicycle racer. He competed in the men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Photo of Pavel Tonkov

5. Pavel Tonkov (b. 1969)

With an HPI of 45.85, Pavel Tonkov is the 5th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Pavel Sergeyevich Tonkov (Павел Сергеевич Тонков; born 9 February 1969 in Izhevsk) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Russia. His talents were first showcased when winning the world junior title as part of the Soviet Union team in 1987. This alerted the world to his talents, and he turned pro in 1992 with the RUSS-Baïkal team. His biggest success was the overall win in the 1996 Giro d'Italia. He went on to place 2nd in the following two editions of the Italian race and all total he placed in the top 5 of the Giro on seven occasions. He also had two top 5 performances in the Vuelta and while he entered the Tour de France on three occasions he never completed one. He won the 1995 Tour de Suisse and the 1997 Tour de Romandie. He placed 3rd overall in the 2000 Vuelta a España. Throughout much of his career, he was a client of the controversial Michele Ferrari. He retired in 2005. He lives in Córdoba, Spain, where he manages a hotel.

Photo of Evgeni Berzin

6. Evgeni Berzin (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 44.65, Evgeni Berzin is the 6th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Evgeni Valentinovich Berzin (Russian: Евге́ний Валенти́нович Берзин; born 3 June 1970 in Vyborg, Russia) is a Russian former road cyclist. Coming from track cycling, where he successfully represented the Soviet Union at World Championships, he moved to Italy in 1992 and turned professional with Mecair–Ballan in 1993. His second season in 1994 was to be his best, with victories at the Giro d'Italia and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He finished second at the 1995 Giro d'Italia, but failed to live up to high expectations in the years after. A brief spell in the race leader's yellow jersey and a stage win at the 1996 Tour de France were his last big results. In 1997, he unsuccessfully attempted to break Chris Boardman's hour record. He retired from the sport in 2001.

Photo of Denis Menchov

7. Denis Menchov (b. 1978)

With an HPI of 42.70, Denis Menchov is the 7th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Denis Nikolayevich Menshov (often mistakenly romanized as Menchov, Денис Николаевич Меньшов; born 25 January 1978) is a former professional Russian road bicycle racer, who rode as a professional between 2000 and 2013. He was best known as a general classification rider, a climber and an accomplished time trialist. In 2005 he finished second in the Vuelta a España and in 2007 he finished as the champion. He also won the centenary Giro d'Italia in 2009 and finished second in the Tour de France in 2010 becoming the first Russian to do so. He was later disqualified from that Tour de France, as well as the 2009 and 2012 editions, owing to adverse biological passport findings.

Photo of Dimitri Konyshev

8. Dimitri Konyshev (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 41.68, Dimitri Konyshev is the 8th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Dimitri Konyshev (Russian Дмитрий Борисович Конышев; born 18 February 1966) is a Soviet/Russian former road bicycle racer. Over his 17 year professional cycling career, Konyshev won nine Grand Tour stages becoming one of the few riders to win a stage in all three Grand Tours. He won 4 apiece in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, and he also won a single stage in the Vuelta a Espana. Konyshev was the first Soviet and first Russian to win a medal in the Men's Road race at the UCI Road World Championships. He won a Silver medal in 1989 behind Greg LeMond and a Bronze medal in 1992 behind Gianni Bugno and Laurent Jalabert. In his day, Konyshev could win from an attack or a sprint finish. He was the first rider from the Soviet Union and also the first Russian to win a stage at the Giro d'Italia. He never won a Cycling monument but placed in the top 10 on four occasions three of which were in Giro di Lombardia. In the 2000 Giro d'Italia he won both the Points classification and Combativity classification. In the 1997 edition of the race he won one stage and the Intergiro classification. Following his retirement from racing, he became a sports director with Tinkoff Credit Systems. He moved to UCI WorldTeam Team Katusha in 2009 where he was an assistant sports director for 11 seasons before the team folded in 2019. Gazprom–RusVelo employed Konyshev from 2020 till mid 2022, when they lost their UCI license due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Konyshev's son Alexander Konychev is also a professional cyclist although he represents Italy.

Photo of Pavel Brutt

9. Pavel Brutt (b. 1982)

With an HPI of 41.10, Pavel Brutt is the 9th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Pavel Aleksandrovich Brutt (Russian: Павел Александрович Брутт; born 29 January 1982) is a Russian former professional track and road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2001 and 2017 for six different teams.

Photo of Sergei Ivanov

10. Sergei Ivanov (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 39.87, Sergei Ivanov is the 10th most famous Russian Cyclist.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Sergei Valeryevich Ivanov (Серге́й Валерьевич Иванов) (born 5 March 1975 in Chuvashia, Soviet Union) is a former professional road bicycle racer, who competed between 1996 and 2011. Ivanov had been a member of six different teams, competing for CSKA Lada–Samara, TVM–Farm Frites, Fassa Bortolo, T-Mobile Team, Astana and Team Katusha. In this time he completed in five Grand Tours, and also won six national championship titles. He also won the Tour de Pologne 1998. He finished his sports career in 2009 He now lives in Bekkevoort, Belgium.

People

Pantheon has 44 people classified as Russian cyclists born between 1954 and 2001. Of these 44, 41 (93.18%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Russian cyclists include Viatcheslav Ekimov, Sergei Sukhoruchenkov, and Andrei Tchmil. The most famous deceased Russian cyclists include Anatoly Chukanov, Viktor Manakov, and Dmitry Nelyubin. As of April 2024, 8 new Russian cyclists have been added to Pantheon including Gulnaz Khatuntseva, Maria Novolodskaya, and Anton Sintsov.

Living Russian Cyclists

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Deceased Russian Cyclists

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Newly Added Russian Cyclists (2024)

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