knockout wrote:
| Episode I : Aleksei Saramotins |
[img-r]https://www.cqranking.com/men/images/Riders/2015/CQM2015001546.jpg[/img-r]
| First Name: | Aleksei |
| Last Name: | Saramotins |
| Nationality: | Latvian |
| Seasons with the team: | 2014 |
| Age when joining: | 32 |
| Key Stats: | 75SP, 71CB |
Throughout his career Aleksei Saramotins never was a superstar. Despite being on the professional racing circuit since 2008 he did not race in a single WT race. Instead he gained a reputation as attacking journeyman who delivered valuable helping work for his leaders. During his one season with Evonik he had a lasting impact on the team development.
His first notable appearance came when he joined Zenmind - Evolution (formerly Agritubel) in 2008. He was part of multiple break attempts in races such as Tour de Georgia, Tour of Britain and Paris - Tours but his groups were never capable of keeping the peleton at distance. His overall performance must not have been good enough as he did not find a team for the 2009 season.
Saramotins wins an intermediate sprint against Ben Day, Nico Keinath, Carlos Maya and James Lewis Perry in the 2008 Tour de Georgia
In 2011 he joined newly founded Team Pokerstars focussed on sprints and cobbled classics. He was intended as part of the leadout train for world class sprinter Erik Mohs and as domestique for cobble races. His team had a well balanced squad for those races with Roger Kluge, Kevin Van Impe and Anthony Geslin so domestiques like Aleksei Saramotins or Nick Ingels were given no room for own results.
There was only one instance where he was allowed to go for a result himself. Announced team leader Samuel Dumoulin crashed on the opening stage of the Tour Down Under and finished the race with an injury so Dan Holloway, Marco Guillen and Aleksei Saramotins could go for it. Saramotins finished the first stage won by Mark Cavendish as nineth behind stars like Paolo Bettini, Maxime Vantomme or Juan Van Heerden.
Not being satisfied with his role within the team he signed with a new German team for the 2012 season: Team Trilux - Falke. Announced as a leadout and domestique for cobbled races he outperformed the team's expectations by finishing 8th in Nokere - Koerse beating his former leader Kluge. In the following classics he often missed crucial splits and finished in the top 25s. Not so in Grand Prix Herning: At some point during the mass sprint Saramotins may have hoped for more but finishing 5th behind winner Jerome Giaux, Matti Breschel, Toms Stamsnijder and wonderkid John Degenkolb was still the biggest achievement of his career.
He also joined some breaks. While he was reeled in late after his attempt in the Vuelta a Burgos (he still finished the stage at 10th) he was more successful on the second stage of the Giro del Capo. Originally a 7-man group Aleksei Saramotins, Matti Breschel and Jaume Rovira could survive until the finish line. Rovira denied Saramotins his first victory of the career but Saramotins could still enter the podium as new owner of the yellow jersey. He quickly lost it to Rovira on the next stage but it is a proud day in Aleksei's history.
Saramotins wears the leader jersey on the 2012 Giro del Capo Stage 3
Before the 2013 season he signed with Ekspla-Cision Cycling Team which was to become his most succesful season as a sprinter. And on his very first day of racing with his new team in San Luis he showed everyone that he should not be underestimated. Due to hard fighting team mate Vitauskas Kaupas the big name guys had to go early and Saramotins could beat the likes of Greipel, Kupfernagel, Avelino or Allen Davis in a mass sprint when he finished 2nd behind Mirko Lorenzetto. He added many more good mass sprint results like a 6th place in San Luis, a second place in the Vilnius GP and a 2nd a two 5th places in the Ronde van Belgie resulting in a fiveth place in GC.
He continued to live his attacking spirit and got very close to his first career victory multiple times. After many waves of attacks by the leaders of various teams in Trofej Porec a group of five sprinted for the victory. Saramotins finished third behind Arnaud Coyot and Jonas Vangenechten. He also got a 5th place in the GP Yekaterinburg when fellow escapee Eduard Vorganov won. However, the closest he came to a victory was on stage 3 of the Baltic Chain Tour. He formed a group with Tanovitchii, Hopman and young cobble-specialist Zepunkte. It was the opportunity of a lifetime for Saramotins to take a win in not only his home-country but his hometown as the group hold a four minute gap to the peleton with only six km to go but then it got too tactical and the group sat up completely allowing the peleton to come back. Saramotins only finished 8th on the day on the saddest day of his career.
Aleksei Saramotins attacks during the 2013 Trofej Porenc
In 2014 he joined once again a newly found team: Evonik - Signal Iduna. Signed once again as veteran who can deliver Simon Geschke some leadouts he got a (shared) leaders role for cobbled classics. Still on the search for his first career victory nobody could know that his career year was just ahead of him at the advanced age of 32.
Early in the season (during Vuelta ao Algarve) he delivered two perfect leadouts to Simon Geschke which Geschke converted into the first two stage wins in team history. Unfortunatelly, only text reports exist of this race as the TV coverage went broke.
Later in the season, the classic season had just started, the GP Oudenaarde would crown his career. Attacking after half the distance with Rory Sutherland on the Oude Kwaremont Saramotins could quickly close the gap towards the morning break. After dropping most of his companions it was the Paterberg where Saramotins went solo for the last 28 kilometres of flat roads. A group of favourites came close again but they couldnt catch Saramotins who finally could celebrate his first career victory. Timothy Dupont even made it a 1-2 for the perfect Evonik race.
Saramotins with the decisive attack on the Paterberg in the 2014 GP Oudenaarde
He carried the form of his life into the later part of the season. He added a 15th place at Tro Bro Leon, a 8th place in Hainlaite and a 9th place in Barcelona but the second highlight of his season was the Lincoln GP. When Cedric Lebris from arch rival Team TomTom and Silvio "Supertalent on a unicycle" Herklotz attacked 83km before the finish Saramotins jumped behind. Quickly gapping the earlier break members the trio entered the final lap together. After a couple of attacks only Cedric Lebris and Aleksei Saramotins were left to battle it out together. It went down to the cobbled climb on the last hundred meters where Saramotins outsprinted Lebris and took home his second classic victory!
Saramotins wins the 2014 Lincoln GP ahead of Cedric Lebris
He ended his season with a couple of strong leadouts. e.g. on the opening stage of the Herald Sun Tour where he delivered a perfect leadout for Geschke who took the win home while Saramotins finished third himself.
The 2014 season was his only season in black and yellow. It was a short stint with the team but he left a remarkable and lasting impact on the team. He was responsible for latvian company ELKO noticing the team in the first place and thus, the team would likely look a lot different today if he never had joined us.
Originally, he planned to race one more season with Evonik and use their wildcard to Paris - Roubaix to retire immediately after his first PT race day but it came different.
Due to financial struggles after the deals for Matej Mohoric and superstar Tom Boonen he was traded to (again) newly found greek outfit Elta - Hellenic Post in 2015.
He was used as domestique only and maybe due to his age he could not repeat his performances from the previous season. One single breakaway appearance in Circulo de Juarez was his rare opportunity to fight for his own result but the sprinter teams were too strong that day.
Many expected his retirement after the season but he still felt not ready for ending his career and was transferred to Bulgarian based Vivacom in a stunning trade. As in the previous season he was limited to domestic work with (until now) just one chance to shine.
On the final stage of the Tour of Langkawi he was part of the break of the day. They worked well together and the group could barely survive the chase of the peleton. With 1.5 km to go it looked like only Ruffoni and Gudsell would battle Saramotins for the win but Saramotins completely collapsed and finished 17th - while Ruffoni, Gudsell and fellow former escapee Bassirou Konte finished on the podium.
Saramotins, Ruffoni and Gudsell accelerate away from Rybalkin, Cooper and Konte on a 2016 Langkawi stage
We'll have to see what he can still add in the remainder of the season but with the widely expected retirement at the end of the season this might have been the final shot at repeating his 2014 victories.
It is rumoured that Saramotins will join the Evonik coaching staff as soon as he ends his career to raise the next generation of Latvian cycling.
Teams:
| 2008 | ZENMIND - EVOLUTION |
| 2009 | - |
| 2010 | - |
| 2011 | Team Pokerstars.com |
| 2012 | Team Trilux - Falke |
| 2013 | Ekspla-Cision Cycling Team |
| 2014 | Evonik - Signal Iduna |
| 2015 | Elta - Hellenic Post |
| 2016 | Vivacom - DataMap |
Results:
| 2012 | Grand Prix Herning | 5th |
| 2012 | Giro del Capo | One day in the leaders jersey |
| 2013 | Vilnius GP | 2nd |
| 2013 | Trofej Porec | 3rd |
| 2013 | Ronde van Belgie | 5th |
| 2013 | GP Yekaterinburg | 5th |
| 2014 | GP Oudenaarde | 1st |
| 2014 | Lincoln GP | 1st |
But ofc, I'd love to be PT although I'd have to do a big time restructuring of strava then. Racing Volta a Portugal showed me how far away from success we will be.
