RusVelo rider Artem Ovechkin is back on the top step of the podium of the Russian elite time trial championships. Six years ago it looked like a beginner's luck; lately, when he placed third twice in a row, luck was clearly not on his side. Today the battle was hard, and for a long hilly course (56 km in 1.12'00” at an average of 46.661 kmh) the gaps between Ovechkin and the other two medal winners, Sergey Nikolayev (ITERA – Katusha) and Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo), 22 and 24 seconds respectively, didn't look really huge. Anyway, the reasons for this win were meticulous preparation, planning and experience accumulated over the years rather than a chance he managed to catch.

That's what the newly-crowned champion had to say after the finish:

“The course was cut out for me. It looked flattish and fast on paper, but in the reality the minimum speed fell as low as 26 kmh, while the top speeds soared over 65 kmh, the changes of rhythm could kill anyone.

"I focused more on my heart rate than on the watts. I planned to ride the opening 28 km-long lap in a more discreet way tactically, but failed to keep a full control over my dynamics; it was little surprise that by km 40 I felt a crisis coming. Only than could I pace myself on the descent, lowered the HR and felt better again. I rode the final stretch strongly, but had some serious doubts as to how much time I lost in that “recovery ride”.

"Most of the experts bet on Anton Vorobyev as a potential winner, and it was logical enough, he's a world-class time trialist. But when I tested the course, I realized that Sergey Chernetskiy and Ilnur Zakarin could be far more dangerous on it. With his climbing legs this season Ilnur could create a serious gap on that long drag, and while most of the riders were left out of breath for quite a while after it, Zakarin could keep on riding fast and accumulating a great deal of time gap. Somehow he didn't deliver, in my opinion, this championship was low on the list of his priorities. I have to admit that I'm generally surprised by the composition of the top-10.

"Last year the team wanted me in front in the mountains and I shed some kilos. This year it was completely different: when we mapped it out ahead of the season, I made it clear that I'd focus on the preparation for the Worlds; I'm not a prototypical time trial specialist, I'm too small and need to put on muscles to be competitive against the big guys. Which means a different accent in the training, visiting the gym regularly (I wish it was more regular actually, the racing schedule didn't leave too much space for it).

"All in all, I'm happy with the way I've got to know myself better and started to hit the top form exactly when necessary. June has always been the month for me, while my autumn peak came too late normally, in October. Now I feel much more in control here.”