Vanya Odintsovo: a former sports schoolboy who races everything from track to gravel

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. Frame to order — in advance

   Vanya's frame production stretched from the promised three months to five. If you need a frame for the season, you should order it much in advance.

2. Check the flask holders on the gravel

   On the Tsar Grader washboard, Vanya's isotonic flask flew out. Holders that hold securely on asphalt can fail on shaking.

3. Pick up the tires before the race

   At the Michurinsky marathon, Vanya found out the day before that 42 mm did not fit from behind, and went to 33 mm — after the finish he could not straighten up for a week. Try on the rubber in advance.

4. Car wash at the finish line

   For dirty starts, the organizers should install high-pressure sinks with a supply of water, as at MTB marathons — this significantly increases the comfort of participants.

5. The children's base has been maintained for years

   Vanya still rides on the volumes rolled up in the sports school, and drives into the top three at marathons without structural training.

6. Parental support solves

   Young riders who are not taken to training camps can be helped by family: her own trips to the starts and decent equipment kept Vanya's love for the bike.

Niva, SYRE frame and wooden bicycle

The release begins with the car: instead of the old Land Rover, Vanya and his parents bought a new Field and wants to put a tent on the roof on it. The rest of the money goes to cycling: track rental and a new gravel pit. Upset that he didn't win one of the summer races, he ordered a SYRE frame with a discount, which he received at the award ceremony. They promised three months, the fifth is coming — so you need to order a frame for the next season, advises Vanya, in advance.

Another story is a wooden bicycle. Vanya himself offered the manufacturer to ride their frame on the track and shoot content, and now he rides it for training and wants to compete. He believes that the bike rides normally, although Ilya's friend spoke of him as too soft. It is not clear only whether the organizers, who measure even the removal of the lounger, will allow the wooden frame.

Why do sports school children quit cycling

Vanya describes the system from the inside. The child comes to the section until about 12 years old, the main task of the coach is to win the city championship: for this the coach is entitled to a surcharge. Then all year round hard training in any weather, for some - fees, but no salary, no pleasure. By the age of 20-21, a former athlete goes into life, where no one decides anything for him anymore, and only a few work in a specialty, usually coaching.

Vanya himself left the sports school in the eighth or ninth grade and began to skate for himself. Now he is in his fourth year of university studying hydraulic engineering and has been working in his specialty for six months. Of the friends from sports school and summer camps, cycling was the only one who did not quit.

Racer for all disciplines

This season, Vanya raced for different teams: initially, he agreed to ride MTB marathons for one, road races for another, and in the end, everything got mixed up. But he didn't pay for any race himself. His favorite is gravel, in winter — the track, which he's been riding since he was nine. He wants to try track starts with athletes: they ride tightly, elbow each other, and amateurs are afraid of damaging their bikes.

Cyclocross is given to him the hardest of all: ragged hour-long work requires special endurance. He remembers the first dirty stage of the united cup with horror and suggests that the organizers install high-pressure washers, like at MTB marathons, so that riders can immediately wash themselves and their bikes.

Without a coach and an indoor trainer

Vanya does not have a coach, FTP test, or smart trainer: he says he unscrewed the trainer back in sports school. He uses the base he built up in childhood and just rides. An attempt to work with a coach ended with a plan of two rides of 160 km on weekends — he could not combine this with studying and working. Now he has three workouts a week, in the evenings on the track.

At the same time, Vanya sees that all rivals have coaches, and admits that he will also start next season. While he admits that he does not specifically look at Strava to those who train in Spain and Turkey, so as not to get upset.

Lessons from Fury Road and Tsar Grader

Vanya really wanted to win on Fury Road, but in the final ending he slid off the track into the sand and could not open the sprint. I lost — and it was after that that I decided that I needed a new bike: the old cyclocross without axles and with bad brakes no longer pulled.

He was preparing for the Tsar Grader seriously: he described how many tanks, isotonics and gels to take and when to drink them. But right after the exit from the asphalt on the washboard, a flask with isotonics flew out of his car. Ilya reminds that in 2025 the long distance will be 250 km, and the finish line will be on asphalt again.

Team tactics and the role of baty

In St. Petersburg races, according to Vanya, team actions are easy to guess and join, but in Moscow, he gets lost: he doesn't understand who's in his category and ends up either with the elite or without them. That's why he wants to assemble a St. Petersburg team from those who currently ride on their own. Tactics were taught thoroughly in the sports school: on the track — points races and scratch races, on the road — closing attacks and bringing the sprinter to the finish line.

The warmest part of the conversation is about his father. In the sports school, they focused on kids who grew tall early, and Ivan wasn't taken to training camps. Then his father took the family to marathons in the Vologda region and Turkey, gave his son his road bike and carbon wheels. Thanks to him, Ivan says, he stayed in cycling.

Timestamps

1. 0:00Lada Niva
2. 2:35Frame SYRE
3. 4:52Wooden bicycle
4. 7:28Career of a sports school student
5. 11:31What teams does he race for
6. 14:25Multi-racer
7. 16:35Dirty Cyclocross
8. 19:35FTP
9. 23:41The main thing is not to win
10. 28:13Life is pain
11. 30:26SRAM or Shimano
12. 31:51What to do with road racing
13. 36:11Accelerators in sports school
14. 40:37A brilliant plan
15. 44:45Burnout and motivation

Mentioned in this episode

SYRE · Tsar Grader · Fury Road · Michurinsky Marathon · Modder · Coffee Riders · Shimano · SRAM