Denis Menchov

Denis Menchov
Menchov at the 2011 Tour de Romandie
Personal information
Full nameDenis Nikolayevich Menchov
NicknameThe Silent Assassin
The Pope
Denny[1]
Born (1978-01-25) 25 January 1978 (age 46)
Oryol, Soviet Union
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight65 kg (143 lb; 10 st 3 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
2000–2004Banesto
2005–2010Rabobank
2011Geox–TMC
2012–2013Team Katusha[2]
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
Young rider classification (2003)
1 individual stage
Giro d'Italia
General classification (2009)
Points classification (2009)
3 individual stages
Vuelta a España
General classification (2007)
Mountains classification (2007)
Combination classification (2005, 2007)
5 individual stages

Stage races

Tour of the Basque Country (2004)

One-day races and Classics

National Time Trial Championships (2012)

Denis Nikolayevich Menshov (often mistakenly romanized as Menchov, Денис Николаевич Меньшов; born 25 January 1978) is a former professional Russian road bicycle racer, who rode as a professional between 2000 and 2013. He was best known as a general classification rider, a climber and an accomplished time trialist. In 2005 he finished second in the Vuelta a España and in 2007 he finished as the champion. He also won the centenary Giro d'Italia in 2009 and finished second in the Tour de France in 2010 becoming the first Russian to do so. He was later disqualified from that Tour de France, as well as the 2009 and 2012 editions, owing to adverse biological passport findings.

  1. ^ "Giro d'Italia feature". cyclingnews.com. 19 May 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  2. ^ "Russian Menchov joins Katusha". Yahoo! Eurosport. TF1 Group. Reuters. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2012.