Ilnur Zakarin announced a somewhat premature end to his cycling career, announcing the news on his Instagram page. The former Grand Tour contender was part of the Gazprom-RusVelo team since 2021, but was left without racing options when the UCI ban on Russian teams in the wake of his country's invasion of Ukraine led to the squad's collapse.
"I officially announce my retirement from cycle sport career," Zakarin wrote. "I've had more than 20 years of different competitions, success and obstacles, achievements and failures. Now I'm ready to move on. This is a new stage and a new start."
During his time with Katusha, Zakarin won the Tour de Romandie (2015), stages of the Giro d'Italia (2015, 2019) and Tour de France (2016) finished in the top 10 of Grand Tours three times, taking third in the 2017 Vuelta a España.
Zakarin struggled to fulfil that potential, however, missing the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after the IOC's attempt to ban all Russians with past doping offences in response to the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal.
He had misfortunes with teams, too. Katusha sold its WorldTour license and management company to Sylvan Adams' Israel Cycling Academy in 2019 after co-title sponsor Alpecin departed for Mathieu van der Poel's team. Zakarin left for the CCC Team only to see the pandemic of 2020 kill the Polish shoe company that supported the team. The CCC Team disbanded, selling its top-tier license to what is now Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert.
In his final race before the team's demise, Zakarin crashed out of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana and suffered a concussion.
"I'm starting a new chapter of my life, and it's still tied to sports," Zakarin wrote, explaining he would be working with the Inex Club in Cyprus.
"This is what I really like doing, and something I'm going to give myself into."
