Andrey Kulagin: minus 40 kilos, victory in the C-cluster and money in the Etalon club

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. Losing weight means changing your lifestyle

   A diet for the summer gives a temporary result. Andrey dropped more than twenty kilograms twice and returned them until he completely rebuilt his life: regular sports, periodic calorie counting, almost without alcohol.

2. Watts per kilogram is more important than watts

   In three years, Andrei's power has grown by about 20 watts, but the weight reduction from 90 to 77 kg brought him to the podiums for the first time, because he stopped falling off on the terrain.

3. Open a sprint by marks

   Choose in advance the points at 400, 300 and 200 meters at the finish line and decide where to sit on the wheel and where to go forward. A timely open sprint solves more than the sprint itself.

4. Team training is no substitute

   The turntable, the feeling of the wheel and the behavior in the peloton cannot be mastered by broadcasts. In group training, you can make a dozen breakaway attempts at one time.

5. Technique is useful not only for beginners

   Andrey does not consider himself a beginner, but after technical training he feels more confident in the peloton at any race.

6. End-to-end credit motivates

   The goal for the whole season, for example, the overall standings of the series, makes every race important and does not give up after one failure.

7. Club App — Early for a small club

   While the club can be maintained in tables and Telegram, its own platform does not pay off: Etalon needed another million rubles for revision, and the project was put on pause.

8. Start doing

   Andrey's main advice: let it be crooked, but start, and then listen to someone else's opinion and correct it. The movement is created by those who do.

From 117 kg to the road

By the age of 33, Andrei weighed 117 kg, had difficulty tying sneakers and felt that the brightness had gone out of his life. He started with trailrunning: it was easier to run on soft ground with such a weight than on asphalt. Along the way, I tried to ride the stage of the Leningrad Region Cycling Marathon Cup on MTB, and then, like many entrepreneurs, I went into triathlon.

He jumped out of the triathlon in time: the coach asked why bother with swimming and running if you only like cycling. For the last three years, Andrey has been a convinced road racer and says that only now he gets real pleasure.

How to lose weight so as not to return

Andrey's weight is gained easily: it was worth relaxing in October after the season, and immediately plus eight kilograms. Twice he lost more than twenty kilograms and twice returned — each time higher than before. The main conclusion of fifteen years of struggle is that temporary measures give temporary results, so you need to change your lifestyle — even in small steps, but forever.

He doesn't see any talent in himself and makes up for it with perseverance: he periodically counts calories, trains regularly and has almost given up alcohol. The 2025 season was the first when his weight didn't roll back. Now he weighs 77 kg with a height of 176 cm and wants to get down to 68, focusing on a rider of similar build — Mark Cavendish. The goal is about 4.5 W/kg, which, according to Nikolai Zemlyanoy, is enough to compete in the B-cluster.

Cycling Race Season: yellow jersey for the whole year

While Andrey weighed about 90 kg, he did not go above twenty: the power was there, but at the slightest relief he fell off. In three years, the power has grown by only twenty watts, but the watts per kilogram have changed a lot — and the result came immediately. At the very first race of the season, on the Garden Ring, he became the second: it was the first podium in his life.

He was motivated by Nikolai Zemlyanoi, who had fought for the overall Cycling Race a year earlier. Andrey drove all the races of the series in the C-cluster and won the season in the absolute. According to him, the end—to—end standings make every race interesting: if you fail one, chances remain, if you lead, you go with responsibility, as in a yellow jersey. Now he is going to apply to the B-cluster and hopes to finally get into the broadcast.

Coach 'do no harm' and team training

Andrey has been training with Alexey Shchebelin, the head of 'Etalon', for five years. They met at a race when Alexey zoomed past shouting 'on the left'. Initially, Andrey came to him wanting to lose weight and engage in triathlon, but the coach honestly said he could only help with the cycling. Andrey describes the coach's approach as the 'do no harm' principle: working by heart rate, building a long base, and finding enjoyment in sports is more important than quick results. If one feels like playing football, then football will appear in the plan.

Separately, he talks about team training on Nissan: without them, you can't learn to drive a "turntable", feel the wheel and open the sprint on time. He explains his results in the Cycling Race primarily by the fact that he sprinted on time, according to pre-selected marks. On race simulations, you can try a breakaway a dozen times in one session — in a race, such an attempt happens once a season. Once in training, he managed to get around Zemlyanoi at the finish line, and it felt almost like winning a race.

What the club's partner does

Andrey wanted a club to appear in St. Petersburg, just like in Moscow: uniform uniform, escort car, walkie-talkies, team tactics. After the collapse of the Vela 47 team, he fit into the revival of Etalon — not only with money, but also with work. In the first year, he shot eight episodes of the YouTube series "Chronicles of Etalon": he wrote scripts, directed and organized the shooting. The away series cost more than one hundred thousand rubles each.

Another project is a club application with plans, payment for training sessions and a participant feed. It was written, but not released: another million rubles were needed for revision, and the club can still be maintained in tables and Telegram. In the second year, the money went to the sports result: departures of the main team, slots, accommodation. Now the club has new sponsors who take over, among other things, the salary of the manager.

Guild of Amateurs and Tsar Grader

Andrey offers fans of the North-West to unite in a kind of trade union: to negotiate with the organizers on timekeeping and cluster distribution on a common behalf, to go on field trips and training camps together, to hold their championship and vote for the racer of the year. Ilya considers the idea to be strong, but it requires a person-a politician who will unite disparate companies. They see the first concrete case in a race with a separate start on a Nissan with normal chip timing.

Andrey also bought a slot on the Tsar Grader — on the emotions of Zemlyanoi's stories — and only then gravel himself and his wife. He considers paying for a slot an investment in the quality of the race, although the price bites. He likes the new round-robin format of the Tsar: less survival, more tactics.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Andrey Kulagin is visiting
2. 01:23The way to cycling: 117 kg, trails, triathlon, road
3. 05:05How to lose weight forever
4. 08:43The season is 2025 and a breakthrough after losing weight
5. 10:10Cycling Race and victory in the C-cluster
6. 13:08Gravel for the sake of the Tsar Grader
7. 16:06The new circular format of the Tsar
8. 18:33Coach Alexey and the 'do no harm' approach
9. 24:52Team training on Nissan
10. 29:09The role of Etalon's partner
11. 33:00Etalon Chronicles and club app
12. 37:30Second year: betting on sports results
13. 43:07Road racing in St. Petersburg
14. 45:40The idea of the Guild of bicycle enthusiasts
15. 53:36Target by weight and weight on track
16. 56:25New partners and fees
17. 58:54Tip: start doing
18. 1:00:35Who should I call to the podcast next

Mentioned in this episode

Benchmark · Cycling Race · Tsar Grader · Russian Gravel Series · Leningrad Region Cycling Marathon Cup · Vela 47 · Volga Union · Class Team · Canyon Grizl · La Strada