Viatcheslav Ekimov: Cycling's Ageless Wonder

Viatcheslav Ekimov got over the hill before the 2006 Tour de France even started.

He turned 40 on Feb. 4 of that year, yet still tackled the 2,200-mile bike race. And much credit for his teammate Lance Armstrong's win that year is due to Ekimov's performance in his 15th Tour.

Can you even imagine going that far on your bike over 22 or 23 days?

I really, really hope I'm like "Eki" by the time I reach that age.

Ekimov started training in the former USSR at age 12 and won a track team pursuit gold medal for his nation at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games at a tender 22.

He started competing as a professional cyclist in 1990 and won the Tour DuPont in 1994 with the now-defunct WordPerfect team. 

It wasn't until 2000, when he signed with the U.S. Postal team for the second time, that the best and most important years of his career would get started.

Eki had previously been with USPS, but had missed Lance Armstrong's first Tour de France win in 1999 when the team had neglected to extend his contract.

After dominating the most-respected race in the cycling world, Armstrong fought for the man to be re-signed, and he was.

Viatcheslav proceeded to play a key role for the "Boys in Blue" that propelled Lance to his seven straight Tour victories, and, to boot, he won a gold medal in his upset victory in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games time trial!

He temporarily retired in 2001, but was back on time to play a key role in the USPS team time trial Stage Four win in the 2003 Tour.

He missed the big event in '04 due to injury, but racked up plenty of accolades that year regardless. He won a silver in the time trial at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and finished fifth in the Tour of Georgia.

Eki rode again in '05, playing his normal support role to Armstrong, and once more in '06 after the team changed sponsors and became Discovery.

He now serves as sports director for Team Astana, working closely with Armstrong and former coach Johan Bruyneel.

Ever the consummate pro, Ekimov never needed the spotlight. In his younger years he was fully capable of winning races, as he proved with his 1988 Tour de Normandie victory.

But as he aged, he filled a niche with an elite team and was a big part of the greatest "dynasty" cycling has ever seen. If you don't know the sport, you might not realize the importance that "domestiques" like Eki have in wins like Lance's.

I'm sure, though, that everyone can respect the man who tackled the toughest bike race in the world at the four-decade mark.