Vasil Kiryienka

Vasil Kiryienka

Kiryienka at the 2011 Giro d'Italia
Personal information
Full name	Vasili Vasilyevich Kiryienka
Nickname	Robocop[1]
Born	(1981-06-28) 28 June 1981 Rečyca, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb; 11.8 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Sky
Discipline	Road and Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time trialist/ Domestique
Professional team(s)
2006	OTC Doors (May–)
2006	Rietumu-Riga (–June)
2007–2008	Tinkoff Credit Systems
2009–2012	Caisse d'Epargne
2013–	Team Sky
Major wins
Grand Tours Giro d'Italia 3 individual stages (2008, 2011, 2015) Vuelta a España 1 individual stage (2013) Stage races Route du Sud (2011) One-day races and Classics World Time Trial Championships (2015) National Time Trial Championships (2002, 2005, 2006, 2015) European Games Individual Time Trial (2015)
Medal record Road bicycle racing Representing  Belarus World Championships 2015 Richmond Time trial 2016 Doha Time trial 2012 Valkenburg Time trial European Games 2015 Baku Time trial Representing Team Sky World Championships 2013 Tuscany Team time trial Track cycling Representing  Belarus World Championships 2008 Manchester Points Race 2006 Bordeaux Points Race
Infobox last updated on 12 October 2016

Vasili Vasilyevich Kiryienka (Belarusian: Васіль Васілевіч Кірыенка; Łacinka: Vasil Vasilevič Kiryjenka) (born 28 June 1981) is a Belarusian racing cyclist, racing for UCI ProTeam Team Sky.^[2]

Career

Early years

Born in Rečyca in the Belorussian S.S.R. in 1981, Kiryienka won his first national time trial championship in 2002. His early career focused mainly on the track, where he won the Points Race at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Later that season Kiryienka won Stage 19 of the 2008 Giro d'Italia, a mountainous affair leading to Presolana, after spending the day on the attack and registering more than 6 hours and a half in the saddle. He attacked his six breakaway companions at the foot of the Monte Para climb and soloed to the finish for the win, by a margin of over four minutes.^[3]

Caisse d'Epargne (2009-2012)

Kiryienka competing in the time trial at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London

Kiryienka moved to the Spanish Caisse d'Epargne squad for the 2009 season.

In 2010 he finished second in the tenth stage of the 2010 Tour de France after he was outsprinted at the line in Gap by Sérgio Paulinho (Radioshack) after the pair's decisive attack with 14 km remaining.^[4]

On 23 May 2011, during the 2011 Giro d'Italia, Kiryienka's Movistar Team team mate Xabier Tondo was killed in a freak accident at home while preparing to train with teammates. He was reportedly crushed between his car and a garage door.^[5] Five days later, Kiryienka rode to victory in a solo effort on Stage 20, a mountain top finish at Sestriere, and he dedicated the stage victory to Tondó, pointing skyward as he crossed the finish line.^[6] The team had met to consider withdrawing from the race after Tondó's death, but instead the riders unanimously voted to ride on.^[7] Kiryienka commented that the squad at the Giro hoped to get a further stage win (as Francisco Ventoso's win had come before Tondó's death) to honor him, while other members of the team grieved with Tondó's family.^[8]

In September 2012, Kiryienka finished third in the individual time trial at the road world championships.^[9]

Team Sky (2013-)

Kiryienka at the 2014 Tour de France

Kiryienka left Movistar Team at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Team Sky on a three-year contract from the 2013 season onwards.^[2]

In May 2015, Kiryienka won the individual time trial of the Giro d'Italia, which was 59.5-km long and relatively rolling.^[10] In June 2015, he won the individual time trial at the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.^[11] On 23 September 2015, Kiryienka won the individual time trial at the road world championships in Richmond, Virginia, United States.^[12]

Career achievements

Major results

Track

Road

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Giro	35	73	37	25	—	—	—	84	—
Tour	—	—	60	DNF	77	DNF	86	—	103
Vuelta	34	16	—	—	—	73	110	83	—

WD – Withdrew; IP – In Progress; DNF – Did not finish

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vasil Kiryienka.

• Vasil Kiryienka profile at Team Sky
• Vasil Kiryienka profile at Cycling Archives
• Palmares at Cycling Base (French)

Olympic Games
Preceded by Max Mirnyi	Flagbearer for  Belarus Rio de Janeiro 2016	Succeeded by Incumbent

UCI Track Cycling World Champions – Men's points race
1980: Stan Tourné 1981–87: Urs Freuler 1988: Daniel Wyder 1989: Urs Freuler 1990: Laurent Biondi 1991: Viatcheslav Ekimov 1992: Bruno Risi 1993: Etienne De Wilde 1994: Bruno Risi 1995: Silvio Martinello 1996: Joan Llaneras 1997: Silvio Martinello 1998: Joan Llaneras 1999: Bruno Risi 2000: Joan Llaneras 2001: Bruno Risi 2002: Chris Newton 2003: Franz Stocher 2004: Franck Perque 2005: Volodymyr Rybin 2006: Peter Schep 2007: Joan Llaneras 2008: Vasil Kiryienka 2009–10: Cameron Meyer 2011: Edwin Ávila 2012: Cameron Meyer 2013: Simon Yates 2014: Edwin Ávila 2015: Artur Ershov 2016: Jonathan Dibben

UCI Road World Champions – Men's time trial
1994: Chris Boardman 1995: Miguel Indurain 1996: Alex Zülle 1997: Laurent Jalabert 1998: Abraham Olano 1999: Jan Ullrich 2000: Serhiy Honchar 2001: Jan Ullrich 2002: Santiago Botero 2003, 2004, 2005: Michael Rogers 2006, 2007: Fabian Cancellara 2008: Bert Grabsch 2009, 2010: Fabian Cancellara 2011, 2012, 2013: Tony Martin 2014: Bradley Wiggins 2015: Vasil Kiryienka 2016: Tony Martin