Cycling fever hits Moscow

All three podium places in Saturday’s Oleg Dyachenko Memorial race in the capital have been taken by Russian cyclists. The event, now in its seventh year, is part of the traditional “Five Rings of Moscow” cycling competition.

The race is dedicated to the memory of Dyachenko, a promising young Russian cyclist who lost his life in a car accident.

A circuit at Krylatskiye Hills, one of the sites of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, stages the race.

This year the Dyachenko Memorial is second in a series of stages in the ‘Five Rings’ competition. The first was the Grand Prix of Moscow, won earlier by the Latvian cyclist Oleg Melekh.

The winners of the race

More than 100 cyclists pedalled for 150 kilometres to complete the race. Each lap lasted about 20 minutes and the leaders were apparent after the second.

Two Russian teams, Katyusha and Premier, had two cyclists each in the leading six and they managed to keep increasing the gap throughout the race.

The runner-up at the Moscow Grand Prix, team Katyusha's Timofey Kritsky, managed to get a 45 second lead on the last 13 kilometre stretch.

Following him were teammate Dmitry Kosyakov and the national team's Danil Komkov.

And that's the way it ended: Katyusha's Krytsky and Kosyakov took first and third places respectively, with Danil Komkov coming in second.