Piotr Ugrumov

Piotr Ugrumov
Personal information
Full name	Pēteris Ugrjumovs
Born	21 January 1961 (age 64); Riga, Latvia
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing specialist
Professional teams
1989–1990	Alfa Lum
1991–1992	Seur
1993–1995	Gewiss–Ballan
1996–1997	Roslotto–ZG Mobili
1998–1999	Alessio–Bianchi
Major wins
	Grand Tours Tour de France 2 individual stages (1994) Giro d'Italia 1 individual stage (1993)

Piotr Ugrumov (Latvian: Pēteris Ugrjumovs or Pjotrs Ugrjumovs, Russian: Пётр Угрюмов) (born 21 January 1961) is a former Russian-Latvian professional road racing cyclist who participated for Latvia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, though he was a part of the Russian delegation at the 1996 Summer Olympics. His career as a professional lasted from 1989 to 1999, he had ten victories. Ugrumov finished second at the 1994 Tour de France. Between 1990 and 1996 he came in the Top 10 of seven Grand Tours, four in the Giro, two in the Tour and one in the Vuelta.

Career

He was born in Riga in 1961, and displayed his potential for stage race racing with a stage win at the 1984 Baby Giro.^[1]^[2] As an amateur he was part of the Soviet national team for the Olympic Games, and won three USSR national championships, as well as stages in the Tour de l'Avenir and the Peace Race, in which he finished on the podium.^[3]

He rode for Alfa Lum in 1989 and 1990, as part of a team of Soviet riders transitioning to professionalism, which included Dmitri Konyshev, Vladimir Poulnikov and Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, by which stage he was already 28.^[3] Competing at the 1989 Giro d'Italia he won the Young Rider classification. He had a top-ten finish the following year, finishing eighth on the general classification at the 1990 Giro d'Italia.^[1] He won the Vuelta a Asturias and the Luis Ocaña Trophy in 1991, riding for the Seur cycling team.^[3]^[2]

He went on to finish second overall behind Miguel Indurain at the 1993 Giro.^[1]^[2] His finish of just 58 seconds behind Indurain, the shortest distance to the runner-up in his seven Grand Tour victories, was considered a surprise result. Many had expected home favourite Claudio Chiappucci to be the contender closest to Indurain.^[2] However for some, such as Manolo Saiz on the race commentary, his past success as an amateur showed the need of some of the Soviet riders to have time to adapt to professionalism.^[3]

He skipped the Giro in 1994 and instead had a second place finish at the 1994 Tour de France in July, finishing behind Indurain in Paris, but winning back-to-back stages in the Alps, including the final individual mountain time trial, finishing over 90 seconds clear of Marco Pantani and over three minutes ahead of Indurain. He almost had three wins in a row, as he also finished second on another mountain stage at Val Torrens, where he towed Colombian Nelson Rodriguez to the finish only to have him come round him for the victory at the line.^[1]^[2] Those Alpine efforts saw him jumping from ninth to second place overall in the final week of the race having previously been 14 minutes behind the overall lead after the Alpe d'Huez stage.^[3] Of his battles with Indurain in those years, he was quoted as saying "If he remembers me as a rival, that's already a privilege" in the documentary Las Víctimas de Indurain (Indurain's Victims), broadcast by Movistar+.^[2]

He was a member of the Gewiss-Ballan team under team doctor Michele Ferrari that had a collective increase in their red blood cell count, or hematocrit level from December 1994, to May 1995, with his percentage being the highest and with the greatest increase, rose from 32.8% to 60% according to records published in L'Équipe from the office of Dr. Ferrari.^[4]^[2] This was two years prior to the UCI setting the permitted hematocrit level at 50%. Speaking of it he was quoted as saying "I passed all the controls without a problem. My conscience is clear". He had another podium finish in the overall classification at the 1995 Giro, placing third behind Tony Rominger and Evgeni Berzin.^[5] He later finished fourth at the 1996 Giro and finished in seventh place at the 1996 Tour de France.^[1]^[3]

He retired in 1999 after a decade in professional cycling.^[3]^[2]

Ugrumov coached Mexican National team from 2021,^[6] including Isaac del Toro.^[7]

Personal life

Ugrjumovs was born in Riga to a Russian father and Belarusian mother, and attended Riga Secondary School No. 28. He has lived in Italy since 1989. In 1997, Ugrjumovs' old Soviet passport expired and he took up Russian citizenship, but in 2005 he was awarded Latvian citizenship under the name of Pēteris Ugrjumovs and pledged to renounce the Russian one.^[8]^[9]