RusVelo team coach Heiko Salzwedel has said that the team pursuit squad has a very big future ahead, believing that its victory in the Beijing World Cup showed that it could have major ambitions going forward.
The quartet of Alexander Serov, Alexey Markov, Ivan and Evgeny Kovalev clocked up a time of three minutes 57.699 seconds on Friday, beating the Australian riders by over four seconds en route to gold. New Zealand defeated Britain for the bronze.
“This was a great demonstration of strength by my team,” he said afterwards. "I am very proud of all of them. Especially Alexander showed how valuable he is, pushing the watts like there was no tomorrow. This win gives us a lot of confidence for upcoming races. With these boys I can’t wait for the Olympic Games to come. Working with such remarkable athletes, I can only say the sky is the limit for RusVelo”
While some of the nations didn’t have their top pursuit riders there, the Russians are making good progress. The squad improved on the national record set in the Astana World Cup in November, going 1.4 seconds faster.
Salzwedel has previously worked with countries such as Australia, Great Britain and Denmark, and is regarded as one of the best track coaches in the sport.
Women’s team rider Victoria Kondel was third in the points race, taking a bronze medal.
RusVelo is both a team helping some of Russia’s riders prepare for the London Olympics and also a feeder squad for the Katusha ProTeam setup.