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.
 Menchov at the 2011 Tour de Romandie | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Denis Nikolayevich Menchov |
| Nickname | The Silent Assassin The Pope Denny[1] |
| Born | 25 January 1978 Oryol, Soviet Union |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb; 10 st 3 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | All-rounder |
| Professional teams | |
| 2000–2004 | Banesto |
| 2005–2010 | Rabobank |
| 2011 | Geox–TMC |
| 2012–2013 | Team Katusha[2] |
| Major wins | |
Grand Tours
| |
Professional career
editBanesto (2000–2004)
edit
Born in Oryol, Menchov started his professional career in 2000 with the Banesto team of José Miguel Echavarri. His first success came in 2001, when he won the Tour de l'Avenir, a stage race for young professionals. A year later he won a stage in the Dauphiné Liberé. In 2003, Menchov had his breakthrough when he finished 11th in the Tour de France, and won the young rider classification. 2004 was his last year at Banesto and his most successful. He won Tour of the Basque Country, a stage in Vuelta a Aragón, a stage in Paris–Nice and stage five in the 2004 Vuelta a España, from Zaragoza to Morella.
Rabobank (2005–2010)
editMenchov's contract ran out in September 2004 and he moved to the Dutch Rabobank team for two years. He became team captain following Levi Leipheimer's departure to Gerolsteiner. Menchov was Rabobank's main contender for the 2005 Tour de France, but due to a cold, he finished 85th, 2h 35m behind Lance Armstrong.[3] His 2005 Vuelta was more successful. He won the opening time trial to Granada and the stage nine time trial to Lloret de Mar, and wore the leader's jersey. On the fifteen stage, he lost sight of Roberto Heras on a climb and ended the race second behind Heras. Heras was later disqualified for doping,[4] and Menchov received the official win of the 2005 Vuelta, but the title was given back to Heras in 2012. He also captured the event's Combined Classification.[5]
In the 2006 Tour de France Menchov won the 11th stage – the second mountain stage – from Tarbes to Aran Valley–Pla-de-Beret after a sprint with Leipheimer and Floyd Landis. The final week took its toll and he dropped from 3rd to 6th in the Alps. He later moved up to 5th overall after the disqualification of race winner Floyd Landis.
Menchov abandoned the 2007 Tour de France on stage 17, the day after his teammate Michael Rasmussen was fired from Rabobank.[6] Later that year, he won the Vuelta a España after leading during the second half of the race. In the Vuelta he also won a stage, the mountains classification and the combination classification.
In 2008 Menchov concentrated on Tour de France and did not defend his Vuelta title.[7] He ended third in the Tour because Bernhard Kohl was disqualified for doping. Also Menchov finished fifth in Giro prior.
In 2009 Menchov won the Giro d'Italia, with wins in stages 5 and 12. Despite crashing in the final kilometer of the last-stage time-trial through Rome, Menchov held the pink jersey and extended his lead by 21 seconds, winning by 41 seconds over Italy's Danilo Di Luca.[8][9] Menchov also won the points jersey that year.
In the 2010 Tour de France, Menchov came in second place after passing Samuel Sánchez in the final Time Trial. He was third originally, but moved to the second spot as a consequence of Contador's victory being revoked due to a doping affair, as was decided on 6 February 2012. He was later retroactively disqualified and stripped of his second place finish, following a two-year doping ban initiated in 2014 after his retirement.[10] Menchov was also disqualified from the 2009 and 2012 Tours.[10]
Geox-TMC (2011)
editLater in 2010 Menchov transferred to Geox-TMC, as joint leader of the team with Carlos Sastre. Menchov was replaced as leader of Rabobank by Robert Gesink. With Geox, Menchov finished 8th in the 2011 Giro. The team were not invited to the Tour de France, a blow to Menchov, who had been considered a favourite. Menchov finished fifth overall at the Vuelta a España, having helped teammate Juan José Cobo to overall victory.
Katusha (2012–2013)
edit
At the end of 2011, Menchov moved to Russian team Katusha for the 2012 season.[2] Menchov focused the 2012 season on the 2012 Tour de France, although he was devastated with crashes. Menchov also won the Russian national time trial crown. He started the Tour very well with eighth place in prologue, but due to health problems finished only 15th place overall at the end.[11] He was later retroactively disqualified from the 2012 Tour following a post-retirement doping ban.[10] He rode in the 2012 Summer Olympics representing the Russian National Team both in Olympic road race and individual time trial[12] After, the Olympic Games, Menchov rode the Vuelta a España where he won the penultimate stage in Bola del Mundo after outsprinting Richie Porte. After suffering a knee injury before the Giro d'Italia, Menchov announced his retirement from the sport of cycling in 2013.[a]
Return to the sport: Gazprom–RusVelo (2019)
editMenchov returned to cycling in 2019, in the role of directeur sportif for UCI Pro-Continental team Gazprom–RusVelo.[15]
Doping
editOn 10 July 2014, a UCI press release detailing various athlete sanctions specified that Menchov had been banned (for a period of two years) until 9 April 2015 due to adverse biological passport findings. Due to this, he has been disqualified from the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Tours de France.[16]
On 22 January 2015, USADA released its reasoned decision on the case of Dr. Geert Leinders in which it stated that Menchov received blood transfusions during the 2005 Tour de France.[17]
Career achievements
editMajor results
edit- 1997
- 1st Volta a Lleida
- 2001
- 1st
Overall Tour de l'Avenir - 7th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 2002
- 6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 1st Stage 2
- 2003
- 1st
Young rider classification, Tour de France - 1st Clásica a los Puertos de Guadarrama
- 2004
- 1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
- 1st Stage 4
- 1st Stage 5 Vuelta a España
- 1st Stage 6 Paris–Nice
- 1st Stage 1 Vuelta a Aragón
- 2005
- 2nd Overall Vuelta a España
- 1st
Combination classification - 1st Stages 1 & 9
- 1st
- 3rd Overall Tour de Romandie
- 2006
- 5th Overall Tour de France
- 1st Stage 11
- 6th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 1st Stage 4
- 9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
- 2007
- 1st
Overall Vuelta a España
- 1st
Mountains classification - 1st Combination classification
- 1st Stage 10
- 1st
- 3rd Overall Volta a Catalunya
- 1st
Points classification - 1st Stage 5
- 1st
- 4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 2008
- 3rd Overall Tour de France
- 4th Overall Tour de Romandie
- 5th Overall Giro d'Italia
- 5th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
- 6th Clásica de San Sebastián
- 2009
- 1st
Overall Giro d'Italia
- 1st
Points classification[18] - 1st Stages 5, 10 & 12
- 1st
- 1st Overall Vuelta a Murcia
- 2010
- 2nd Overall Tour de Romandie
- 2nd Overall Vuelta a Murcia
2nd Overall Tour de France- 2011
- 2nd Overall Vuelta a Murcia
- 1st Stage 2
- 5th Overall Vuelta a España
- 5th Overall Tour of Austria
- 7th Overall Giro d'Italia
- 2012
- 1st
Time trial, National Road Championships - 1st Stage 20 Vuelta a España
- 4th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
- 2013
- 4th Overall Volta ao Algarve
- 8th Gran Premio Città di Camaiore
General classification results timeline
edit| Grand Tour general classification results | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Tour | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5 | 1 | — | 7 | — | — | ||||||
 Tour de France
|
— | 47 | 93 | 11 | DNF | 85 | 5 | DNF | 3 | — | — | |||||||||
 / Vuelta a España
|
— | — | — | — | DNF | 2 | DNF | 1 | — | — | 41 | 5 | 54 | — | ||||||
| Major stage race general classification results | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Race | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | ||||||
 / Paris–Nice
|
— | 53 | DNF | — | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | 14 | ||||||
 / Tirreno–Adriatico
|
Did not contest during his career | |||||||||||||||||||
 Volta a Catalunya
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | 9 | 3 | — | — | DNF | 109 | 11 | DNF | ||||||
| Tour of the Basque Country
|
— | — | — | 36 | 1 | 11 | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
 / Tour de Romandie
|
— | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | 54 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 14 | DNF | — | ||||||
 Critérium du Dauphiné
|
DNF | 7 | 6 | 39 | — | 24 | 6 | 4 | — | — | 25 | — | 42 | — | ||||||
| Tour de Suisse
|
Did not contest during his career | |||||||||||||||||||
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
DSQ = Disqualified
Notes
edit- ^ During the 2012 and 2013 seasons, Denis Menchov was on Russian team Katusha, but, on 12 July 2014, was banned from cycling events until 9 April 2015 due to adverse biological passport findings. However, he announced his retirement from cycling on 21 May 2013.[13][14]
References
edit- ^ "Giro d'Italia feature". cyclingnews.com. 19 May 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
- ^ a b "Russian Menchov joins Katusha". Yahoo! Eurosport. TF1 Group. Reuters. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ "2005 Tour de France final overall standings". cyclingnews.com.
- ^ Hernan Alvarez (9 February 2006). "Heras banned for two years". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
- ^ "La Vuelta a España 2005 Overall Allround". lavuelta.com. 9 February 2006. Archived from the original on 4 August 2008.
- ^ "Tour de France – Menchov quits as Rasmussen hits back". Eurosport. 26 July 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2008.[dead link]
- ^ Simon Baskett (19 February 2008). "Menchov targets Tour rather than Vuelta defense". Reuters. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
- ^ Reuters 31 May 2009. Russian Clinches Italian Bike Race. The New York Times
- ^ Gallagher, Brendan (31 May 2009). "Denis Menchov wins Giro d'Italia". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
- ^ a b c "Menchov stripped of second place at 2010 Tour de France for doping". Inside the Games. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
- ^ "Velonews.com 17 July 2012. What happened to Menchov?". Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ^ KatushaTeam Official Site 26 July 2012. Katusha riders will take part in 2012 London Olympic Games.: "Katusha riders will take part in 2012 London Olympic Games | Katusha Team". Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ^ "Russian Menchov joins Katusha: Double Grand Tour winner Denis Menchov is joining Katusha for next season". Reuters. 12 December 2011. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ^ "Меньшов дисквалифицирован на 2 года" [Menshov disqualified for 2 years]. Run & Ski (Бег и лыжи) at run-ski.ru (in Russian). 13 July 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ^ "Menchov returns as directeur sportif with Gazprom-RusVelo". Cyclingnews.com. 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ 10 July 2014. Athlete sanctions press release
- ^ http://www.usada.org/wp-content/uploads/AAA_decision_Leinders_December_2014.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ Awarded after the disqualification of apparent winner Danilo Di Luca
External links
edit
- Denis Menchov at trap-friis.dk
- Official website