Egor Chebanov: gravel camp in Turkey, first season on the road and the dream of his own team

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• Issue #43 · November 21, 2025 · 1 h 21 minEgor Chebanov: podium season, own gravel team and why tires are not the main thing

Useful from the issue

1. A coach is discipline

   The main benefit of a coach for Egor is not knowledge, but a plan that cannot be missed. The regularity of the work, according to his feelings, quickly gave an increase in short tests.

2. Intervals — on the road bike

   Egor finds it more convenient to do structured workouts on a road bike rather than on a gravel bike on asphalt.

3. An ambassador needs content

   Egor offered the brand not results, but high-quality photos and activity of the camp. The experience of working with sponsors from another sport also helps.

4. Each participant has a connection

   On group trips, everyone should have a connection: once at a camp, a straggler without a phone took a wrong turn and got lost.

5. Workout with a task

   Free group rides are more useful when everyone has a theme: riding tightly on a wheel, equipment on ascents, descents and turns.

6. Own team — with a sponsor

   Identical jerseys are not a team yet: in order to attract young riders, you need a uniform and payment of entry fees, that is, a sponsor.

7. A simple group lives for years

   SRAM Rival 1x11 on Egor's gravel works for five years without failures: during this time, he only pumped the brakes and changed the pads.

Coach after the season on enthusiasm

The very first days with coach Tolya Solodov made Egor think about where he would have been if he had trained according to plan from the very beginning. He used to know about volumes and intervals, but he did them according to his mood, and more often he just went with friends to the forest. Now there is a sign with intervals, and, as he admits, it became a shame to miss a workout.

Egor calls discipline the main reason to turn to the coach: without a plan and a person who says what needs to be done today, he would quit. In the summer in St. Petersburg, he trained on a flat seven-kilometer circle around the Nissan plant without cars, and every evening he was tormented by the question of what to do there. Already after the Tsar Grader, he noticed that in minute and five-minute tests the numbers increased.

Cyclocross and the first road season

Ilya congratulates Egor on his victory in the combined cyclocross cup, which he held together with Anton. Egor liked the cup, but it seemed too stretched: by autumn many people no longer ride. Ilya, on the contrary, believes that cyclocross should move to October—November and March—April, to real mud. Egor remembers the first stage up to his waist in mud — he flew over the steering wheel twice, but it was soft to fall.

This year, Egor first got on a road bike: a brand looking for ambassadors gave him a frameset, wheels, and cockpit. He's convinced that structured intervals are more convenient to do on a road bike than on a gravel bike. He went to the Cycling Race and Gran Fondo races over the summer, but missed the Tour de Selishchi — the bike arrived a few days before the start.

How to become an ambassador and why racing is not unnerving

Egor puts his ambassador role down to luck and experience: he spent ten years as a sponsored professional snowboarder, so he knows how to work with brands. He had no major road racing results, but the camp had plenty of high-quality content and photos. That was what he offered the brand in response to its post looking for ambassadors.

The snowboarding past helps him not to worry at the starts: he had enough nerves at snowboarding competitions, and cycling for him is pure pleasure. He was nervous only on the Tsar Grader, when after a long shift in front of the group, his legs began to cramp.

Tsar Grader for 250 km and lack of teams

Ilya almost officially announces: at the next Tsar Grader, the long distance will be 250 km, the short distance will be 180. Egor considers the last Grader to be the best race of the season: a lot of asphalt at the beginning, a big pack, a real feeling of racing gravel, when fifty people ride together for the first 100 km, and do not crumble after ten minutes.

The conversation turns to commands. In St. Petersburg, according to Egor, there are too few of them, and if all the strong riders join the two existing ones, there will be no one to compete with. Therefore, he wants to assemble his team, but for this he needs a sponsor at least for uniforms and entry fees, especially if you invite young people. Otherwise, he jokes, gravel races will turn into MTB marathons of some veterans. In Moscow, according to him, amateur races are organized at the top level, but entry fees are expensive there.

Endless Summer camps and free workouts

In two years, the camp team conducted four trips to Turkey, once every six months. The last one gathered a record 14 participants, there were no places left, and it passed without a single incident. The camp is designed for amateurs and beginners: a calm pace to look around, not at the wheel. The most memorable mistake from the past is a participant without communication who fell behind and turned the wrong way; since then, communication has been mandatory for everyone.

The camp should pay off — flights are expensive — but they do it primarily for pleasure. In the summer in St. Petersburg, Egor and his comrades spent five weeks of free gravel training sessions: group races a little faster than the walking pace, each with a task — tight riding on a wheel, equipment on slides, and the like. The plans include weekend camps in Russia.

Stuffy questions: tires, groups, MTB

Egor has been riding Specialized Pathfinder gravel tires all his life, first 38 mm, then 42 mm, and next season he wants to be wider and more aggressive — but for this he will have to change the fork. His Trek has been riding the SRAM Rival 1x11 for five years now, and during that time he only pumped the brakes and changed the pads. But if you choose without a budget, he would take Shimano: handles are more convenient.

For cyclocross, according to Yegor, one chainring is needed; for Russian gravel, probably one chainring and a wide cassette will suffice, although top competitors in the World Gravel Championships ride with two. He tried MTB racing on an aluminum Format and admits that a marathon is constant tension and concentration, while XCO is very challenging technique. He doesn't want more: gravel, road, and cyclocross are enough for the whole weekend.

Timestamps

1. 0:00Acquaintance and general coach
2. 2:10The history of the phrase "it won't be cool"
3. 4:34Cyclocross Cup Champion
4. 6:57Highways and sponsors
5. 9:27Excitement at the races and the Tsar Grader
6. 14:24Teams in St. Petersburg
7. 18:49Racing in Moscow
8. 21:36Camps
9. 22:27Gravel training
10. 25:23Endless Summer
11. 28:56Socks Raffle
12. 30:13Tires and Shimano vs. SRAM
13. 34:45MTB
14. 38:28Isn't it scary to do racing
15. 41:42Indoor trainer and plans.

Mentioned in this episode

Endless Summer · Tsar Grader · Tour de Selishchi · Cycling Race · Specialized Pathfinder · Trek · SRAM Rival · Shimano GRX · Format