Banesto (2000–2004) Born in
Oryol, Menchov started his professional career in 2000 with the team of
José Miguel Echavarri. His first success came in 2001, when he won the
Tour de l'Avenir, a
stage race for young professionals. A year later he won a stage in the
Dauphiné Liberé. In 2003, Menchov had his breakthrough when he finished 11th in the
Tour de France, and won the
young rider classification. 2004 was his last year at Banesto and his most successful. He won
Tour of the Basque Country, a stage in
Vuelta a Aragón, a stage in
Paris–Nice and stage five in the 2004
Vuelta a España, from
Zaragoza to Morella.
Rabobank (2005–2010) Menchov's contract ran out in September 2004 and he moved to the
Dutch Rabobank team for two years. He became team captain following
Levi Leipheimer's departure to
Gerolsteiner. Menchov was Rabobank's main contender for the
2005 Tour de France, but due to a
cold, he finished 85th, 2h 35m behind
Lance Armstrong. His
2005 Vuelta was more successful. He won the opening
time trial to
Granada and the stage nine time trial to
Lloret de Mar, and wore the leader's jersey. On the fifteen stage, he lost sight of
Roberto Heras on a climb and ended the race second behind Heras. Heras was later disqualified for
doping, and Menchov received the official win of the 2005 Vuelta, but the title was given back to Heras in 2012. He also captured the event's Combined Classification. In the
2006 Tour de France Menchov won the 11th stage – the second mountain stage – from
Tarbes to
Aran Valley–
Pla-de-Beret after a sprint with Leipheimer and
Floyd Landis. The final week took its toll and he dropped from 3rd to 6th in the Alps. He later moved up to 5th overall after the disqualification of race winner Floyd Landis. Menchov abandoned the
2007 Tour de France on stage 17, the day after his teammate
Michael Rasmussen was fired from Rabobank. Later that year, he won the
Vuelta a España after leading during the second half of the race. In the Vuelta he also won a stage, the mountains classification and the combination classification. In 2008 Menchov concentrated on
Tour de France and did not defend his Vuelta title. He ended third in the Tour because
Bernhard Kohl was disqualified for doping. Also Menchov finished fifth in
Giro prior. In 2009 Menchov won the
Giro d'Italia, with wins in stages 5 and 12. Despite crashing in the final kilometer of the last-stage time-trial through Rome, Menchov held the
pink jersey and extended his lead by 21 seconds, winning by 41 seconds over Italy's
Danilo Di Luca. Menchov was also disqualified from the 2009 and 2012 Tours. He was later retroactively disqualified from the
2012 Tour following a post-retirement doping ban. After, the Olympic Games, Menchov rode the Vuelta a España where he won the penultimate stage in Bola del Mundo after outsprinting
Richie Porte. After suffering a knee injury before the Giro d'Italia, Menchov announced his retirement from the sport of cycling in 2013.
Return to the sport: Gazprom–RusVelo (2019) Menchov returned to cycling in 2019, in the role of
directeur sportif for
UCI Pro-Continental team Gazprom–RusVelo. ==Doping==