Continuing the tradition, within the “Latvian Cycling Year Award” ceremony, the most heartfelt section is the presentation of the award for lifetime contribution to the sport of cycling. Last year, this title was won by road and track cycling coach, Vienības ride updater and sports personality Ernests Pūce. This year, too, this important award will go to a road cycling coach.
Valuing his achievements during his career, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Vitaly Smirnov. The respected coach, who came to Latvia in 1966, started his career at the sports club of the Riga Electric Machinery Factory. Vitaly’s brightest student is Pyotr Ugryumov, who in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s achieved excellent top-level results, including second place in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia standings, winning stages of both the most prestigious tours. Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs also started with success.
A very important stage of Vitaly’s career was working in the “Rietumu banka Rīga” team created by Igo Japiņš and Edvard Bouven, which was the leading team in the Baltics under different names and successfully raced in competitions in Western Europe and other regions of the world. Vitaliis directly contributed to the gold medal of Kalvjes Eisaks, as well as the bronze medals of Artūrs Ansons and Normund Laš in the European U23 Championships. The coach is very proud of the successful career of his student Alexey Saramotin, which culminated in many UCI-level victories, as well as nine seasons in World Tour and Pro-level teams.
Vitalijs Smirnovs has spent many years at the Riga Cycling School, being also the head of the youth program. Toms Skujiņš, Emīls Liepiņš, Indulis Bekmanis, Andris Smirnovs, Andžs Flaksis, Armands Bēcis and others achieved their first great success through this. Later, all of them spent successful years under the leadership of “Rietumu banka Rīga”.
It should be noted that for many years, it was Smirnov who was entrusted with the leadership of the Latvian elite and U23 national team, who worked in close tandem with the “Rietumu banka Rīga” team for a long time. Toms Skujins won a bronze medal at the European U23 Championship under the leadership of Vitalijs, as well as the fifth place at the World Championship, which formed the further path to the World Tour and the excellent success that Tom achieved last year. Andris Smirnovs, Aleksejs Saramotins, Indulis Bekmanis and others also achieved significant success.
Vitaly also gained experience coaching national teams in Egypt, leading its elite men from 1995 to 2001. From absolute outsiders, the coach led the Egyptians to become African champions. With the drivers of this country, Vitalijs was also in Latvia, holding training camps in Sigulda and competing in our national competitions.
The coach is still active and enthusiastic. He passes on his experience to younger colleagues. He also went to training camps in Turkey and Slovakia last year to train the new generation of cyclists.
The Latvian Cycling Federation and the entire bicycle family are proud of Vitalij’s contribution to Latvian cycling, wishing the experienced specialist good health, as well as enthusiasm for the sport of cycling.