Welcome to my blog. My name is Sergey Beloglazov. I'm a 20-year-old russian cyclist. I have made this blog so that regular people can get an insight into the team and into the minds of a professional cyclist.

For those of you that doesn't know me. Here's how cyclingqoutes.com described me when they labelled me the 9th biggest talent outside of the pros:

Sergey Beloglazov has had a brilliant 2013 season. He won the junior russian championship Time Trial as well as stages in Tour of Berlin, Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt and Course de la Paix. All of these on time trials. He won the overall standings in Berlin, while he finished on the podium in Course de la Paix, surprising everyone with his performances on the mountain stage in that race. He has however been very inconsistent in races far from his home country.

Sergey is a strong time trialist. He's a beast when he's alone against the clock and the amount of watt he can produce at this young age is spectacular. He has surprised people by his decent climbing but unless he drops some weight he will never become a mountain specialist. He's tough though, and don't underestimate what toughness can do while climbing. He is fearless on the descent and can make up a lot of lost time on the downhill of climbs. He does not have the burst to seperate from the pack and a future with succes in the ardennes classics are unlikely.

In summary the team signing Sergey Beloglazov will get a very good time trialist that could develop into a decent stage racer. He will need time to adjust, but will be a good helper from day one. He's tough and durable and could win a few races already in his first year.

Current and Historical type comparisons: Indurain, Olano, Ullrich, Martin, Wiggins

After som decent results in some junior races the real interest started when i won the Junior Russian Championships Time Trial. The route was perfect for me and it was raced 50 km from where I live, so I had practiced on it mulitple times before the big day. I ended up crushing my nearest opponent by 1,34. I had some stage wins and a overall GC win previously in the season but this one made the teams go from loose talks to actual contract negotiations

At the end of the year I had 3 offers, all from russian teams.

Itera – Katusha – 2,500 a month – 2 years - Leader
Tinkoff – Saxo – 4,000 a month – 1 years - Domestique
RusVelo – 3,250 a month – 2 years – Protected rider

No matter what I chose it wasn't big money I would be making, bu it was enough to keep me afloat financially.

After serious consideration and multiple phone calls to my father I have decided which team will become my team for next year.

Katusha was offering me 2 years on their development team. By the end of these years I should be making the jump for the real Katusha team. Itera Katusha is only a continental team, and is offering the lowest amount. Even though the role as a leader is intriguing I just feel like I would be wasting my time on a continental team. That's why I quickly rejected them.

The Tinkoff-Saxo offer was very tempting. Earning 4.000 a month would be great. However I would be a domestique and according to the talks I had with Bjarne Riis I would not have many chances to ride my own chances. Honestly I could live with that and the earn myself the respect to ride for myself in some races. In the end I rejected the offer. Tinkoff-Saxo was only prepared to give me a one-year contract. I believe in myself, but I know that all neo-pro's need time to adjust to the tempo. If that took most of the first year I could end up without a team and the dream would be gone.

I chose RusVelo. One of the smaller Pro Continental teams. I had several good talks with team manager Ekimov. I would have to work for the leaders in some races, but would get my own chance already in the first year. The chemistry with Ekimov was good and he was happy when I called to accept the contract.

Finally I could call myself a professional cyclist.

While we have a good team, we do not have the quality to compete along the top sides on the continental tour. The objective for the season will be to secure ourselves another season as a pro continental team. We have good depth in our squad but lacks the top talent to compete for promotion.

Leaders:

Our two leaders are Sergey Firsanov and Sergey Lagutin. These two are vital to the teams succes. Firsanov will be targeting stage races while Lagutin will be our bet in the hilly classics. They will need a strong team in the important races in order to get succes. I 'm usually joking about the team leaders being the Sergey's ;-)

Protected riders:

In this category we find 4 riders including me. Besides me there's 2 other time trial specialists Alexander Serov and Ilnur Zakarin. Serov is a good in a breakaway as well as he has the speed to win a sprint in a small group. Zakarin can do some hills and will be our man for hilly stage races. Besides these our fast man Leonid Krasnov will get his chance on some of the flast stages. He's not the fastest of sprinters, but he's clever and if the other sprinters are having an off day he'll be there.

The Rest:

The rest of the team are mostly young russians and one italian rider. Some of the young russians shows real promise and could become very good assets for the team. We got a few good sprinters and puncheurs on the way.

STAFF & GOALS

Staff

After a series of doping cases on our team the staff has been completely revamped to this season. All trainers and doctors are foreign.

We have three trainers. I'm gonna be working with the legendary Michele Bartoli. He's an ambitious man and it's obvious that he demands a lot from his riders. I like it. It will pressure me to do my best every training session.

We have a doctor appointed a funny little man called Jean Claude Bagot. He's not very good at english. Neither are most of my teammates, but where doing well with hand gestures if we don't understand each other.

Sponsor goals

In the preseason training camp we've decided that this is the race programme I'm gonna follow if everything goes according to the plan. Most of the races are stage races where I will help our leaders and go for a stage on the time trial. The calendar will give me 65 race days.

I'm especially proud to be the leader for Grand Prix of Sochi in my homeland!

* Denotes races where I will be te captain if everything goes well.

February

2.1 Etoille de Besseges
2.1 Tour du Haut Var
1.1 Classic Sud Ardeche

March

1.1 Classic Loire Atlantique
1.1 Cholet – Pays de Loire
2.1 Settimana Coppi e Bartali
2.HC Driegdaagse De Panne *

April

2.2 Grand Prix of Sochi *
1.1 Tour de Finistre
2.HC Giro del Trentino

May

2.1 Szlakiem Grodow Piastowskich *
2.HC Bayern Rundfahrt *
1.1 Tallin – Tartu Grand Prix
1.1 SEB Tartu Grand Prix

June

2.1 Tour of Slovenia
NC Russian Championships
NC Russian Championships TT *

July

2. HC Österreich Rundfahrt

September

2.1 Tour of China II (*)

October

1. HC Tour de Vendee
1. HC Paris - Tours
1.1 Chrono des Nations *