Young queens of Russian sprint join RusVelo track team

Apart from pure physical conditioning, we’ll focus on polishing technical and tactical aspects. To win you have to be impeccable in all the phases of the race, there should be ideal interaction between us two. We saw at the Olympics that top favorites like the British and the Chinese teams missed their chance through this, no matter how strong they were at the moment; and I have little down they put a huge focus on this part of preparation. So it’s an area that makes the difference when the teams are more or less on the same level”.

Daria Shmeleva:

«We chase the Olympic dream, keeping in mind that we’ll face tough competition in Russia even on our way to the start line. So I don’t feel any lofty statements, I’ll just state that work hard, me, my teammate and the coach. We need to get there together, it happens that eventually they make you ride with a different partner, which would be no good not only for us two but for the national squad’s chances either. This is the event where hundredths of a second matter, you need to act as one, and that takes years of riding side by side, not just a couple of training camps. To avoid this we have to be constantly on top for everyone to see this combination as the best one. Two highly important signings for RusVelo track team

The sprint stars will shine even brighter

RusVelo team is proud to announce two new signings for the women squad. Earlier today Anastasia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva, rated high among the leaders of the new generation of sprinters, joined the team at least until the end of the next track season. They are actually the silver-winning duo of the 2015 UCI track World Championships in Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, and their top priority will be to make it all the way to the podium Olympics in Rio. They ride together since as early as 2011 (and it was an instant success as they won the Junior World’s right away). At the same time, each of the girls has definite ambitions of her own.

In 2011 Anastasia Voinova (born in Tula, the cradle of Russian track cycling) stunned the experts by netting all the four sprint events of the UCI Junior World championships, individual and team sprint, keirin and 500 m TT, and repeating this unique achievement at the European championships. Since then she developed into a force to be reckoned with on the adult level, collecting multiple World Cup wins and a bronze at the World Championships. But it was the last season that brought her a real breakthrough in the form of 500 m elite TT World Champion and team sprint silver taken with her teammate Shmeleva.

Daria Shmeleva stepped in as one of the brightest young prospects in women cycling following right in her slightly older friend’s tyre marks a year later: she took all the gold of the UCI World’s sprint program in 2012. Still only 20 years old, now Daria has a number of impressive results to her name on the elite level, like podium places of the World Cups, a European team sprint champion’s title and the above-mentioned silver medal at the World championships.

This is what the RusVelo new stars said in the wake of the signing.

Anastasia Voinova:

“Joining RusVelo is a very important step in my career in a number of senses. Apart from a serious financial backing, we’ll have a chance to earn qualification points in parallel with the national team riders. It was a great idea to create a new points system giving priority to the individual score rather than to the national one. I am not the only one thinking that a situation when one rider collects the points and his national teammate takes a whole advantage of his work at the World’s was pretty paradoxical. Now we don’t need to worry about those internal selections; less pressure means a more effective and well-planned work. We’ll continue to train under the full guidance of Vladimir Kiriltsev, he has coached us for a couple of seasons already, the atmosphere of absolute trust is great, and we understand each other without an extra word.

I will get ready to other sprints events too, now I’ve got every reason for that, thanks to joining RusVelo. At the moment I’m not the No 1 in Russian in keirin and individual sprint, so making the national selection is always in doubt; but now I can be sure my trade team will line me up and can train without any weight on my mind. I’m also interested in trying my legs harder in 500 m TT, but unfortunately it’s not a part of Word Cups program”.

Anastasia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva will take a debut in the official events in Rusvelo’s team colors in a month’s time, at GP of Tula and Lesnikov’s memorial in Moscow.