# Yaroslav Popovych

Yaroslav Popovych (Ukrainian: Ярослав Попович; born 4 January 1980) is a Ukrainian former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016.
The winner of the under-23 road race at the 2001 UCI Road World Championships, Popovych turned professional in 2002 with Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, where he performed particularly strongly in the Giro d'Italia, finishing third in 2003. Upon joining Discovery Channel in 2005, his focus switched to the Tour de France, where he won the young riders' classification in 2005 and won stage 12 in 2006. When Discovery Channel folded at the end of 2007, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto in 2008 and on to Astana in 2009. Popovych also raced for Team RadioShack in 2010 and 2011. From 2012 until 2016 he rode with the UCI ProTour team Trek–Segafredo.

## Career
### Early years

Popovych was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. He was considered one of the most promising cyclists while riding in junior and under-23 races after catching 35 victories in 2000 and 2001. He won the Under-23 Men's road race in the 2001 UCI Road World Championships after finishing second the previous year. He also won the Paris–Roubaix edition for under-23 riders and palio del recioto. The Ukrainian turned pro in 2002 by joining the Belgian team Landbouwkrediet–Colnago and delivered some strong showings, most notably in the Giro d'Italia where he finished third in 2003 and fifth in 2004, when he wore the pink jersey during three stages.

### Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (2005–07)

He joined the Discovery Channel in 2005 and he was considered as a possible successor to Lance Armstrong as team leader. In this same year, Popovych took one of his best victories by winning the Volta a Catalunya, which is an important race before the Tour de France. Along with the rest of the Discovery team, he won stage four team time trial in the Tour de France and showed his potential by winning the young rider classification, while helping Armstrong win his seventh Tour de France at the time.
In the 2006 Tour de France, Popovych was considered one of the Discovery Channel team's four leaders, along with José Azevedo, Paolo Savoldelli and George Hincapie. After failing to be among the best for the overall classification in the Pyrenees mountain stages, Popovych won stage 12 by repeatedly attacking his fellow break-away compatriots Alessandro Ballan, Óscar Freire and Christophe Le Mével. During 2006 season he also won stages at the Vuelta a Castilla y León and Tour de Georgia, where he finished third.
Popovych mainly worked as a domestique during 2007 season, aiding Alberto Contador to win Paris–Nice and the Tour de France. Early in the season, he won the fifth stage in Paris–Nice after attacking 33 kilometres (21 miles) from the finishing line. He was considered as the team leader for the Giro d'Italia, but he withdrew in the twelfth stage after suffering two crashes in the race. In the Tour de France, he finished eighth while working for Discovery Channel team-mates Contador and Levi Leipheimer.

### Silence–Lotto (2008)

In 2008, Popovych moved to Silence–Lotto squad after Discovery Channel announced that it would cease operations at the end of 2007.
Popovych was recruited as a domestique member of the Tour de France team primarily to support lead rider Cadel Evans, but had a rather disappointing year, with only a 3rd place in Paris–Nice to show for. At the end of the year, it was announced he would team up with his former Discovery manager Johan Bruyneel again in 2009, joining the new Astana team.

### Astana (2009)

In 2009, Popovych and Armstrong joined the Kazakh-based cycling squad Astana, where many other former Discovery Channel riders and staff were also under contract. Popovych acted as a domestique for Contador in Paris–Nice, finishing 23rd himself.
On 15 October 2009 it was reported that Popovych would move to Team RadioShack for the 2010 season.

### Team RadioShack (2010)

In 2010 Popovych followed many former Astana riders to the newly created American based squad Team RadioShack.

### Doping allegations

In January 2011 Popovych was incriminated in the Floyd Landis doping allegations against the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, after Sports Illustrated magazine reported that in November 2010 his property in Tuscany had been searched by Federal Officials who discovered drug testing documents, medical supplies and performance-enhancing drugs as well as evidence of links to controversial Italian physician Michele Ferrari. Later that day Popovych denied the allegations.

## Major results
### 2000

    1st Overall Tour de Nouvelle-Calédonie
    1st Gran Premio di Poggiana
    2nd Road race, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
    2nd Giro del Belvedere
    2nd Coppa Città di Asti
    3rd Piccolo Giro di Lombardia
    10th Trofeo Alcide Degasperi

### 2001

    1st Road race, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
    1st Trofeo Banca Popolare di Vicenza
    1st Giro del Belvedere
    1st Gran Premio Palio del Recioto
    1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
    2nd Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell
    2nd Gran Premio della Liberazione
    2nd Trofeo Alcide Degasperi
    4th GP Open Campania
    9th GP Città di Napoli

### 2002

    1st Poreč Trophy II
    1st GP de Genève
    3rd Poreč Trophy III
    4th Overall Brixia Tour
    4th Gran Premio Fred Mengoni
    5th Poreč Trophy I
    6th Overall Tour de Wallonie
    9th Overall Tour de l'Avenir
    10th Tre Valli Varesine

### 2003

    3rd Overall Giro d'Italia
    3rd Overall Tour de Wallonie
    5th Overall Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali
    6th Coppa Ugo Agostoni
    7th Overall Tour de Romandie
    7th Giro della Provincia di Lucca
    9th Overall Giro della Liguria
    10th Giro dell'Emilia

### 2004

    1st Trofeo Androni Giocattoli
    5th Overall Giro d'Italia
       Held Maglia Rosa for Stages 13–16
    8th Overall Regio-Tour
    9th Overall Tour of Austria
    10th Firenze–Pistoia

### 2005

    1st Overall Volta a Catalunya
    4th LuK Challenge Chrono (with Paolo Savoldelli)
    Tour de France
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stage 4 (TTT)

### 2006

    1st Stage 12 Tour de France
    1st Stage 2 (ITT) Vuelta a Castilla y León
    3rd Overall Tour de Georgia
       1st Stage 2
    4th GP Ouest–France

### 2007

    1st Stage 5 Paris–Nice
    8th Overall Tour de France
       Stage 9 Combativity award

### 2008

    3rd Overall Paris–Nice

### 2009

    1st Stage 4 (TTT) Tour de France

### 2013

    9th Gent–Wevelgem

### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
| Giro d'Italia | 12 | 3 | 5 | — | — | DNF | — | 15 | — | 63 | — | 133 | — | — |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | 12 | 25 | 8 | 24 | 41 | 85 | DNF | 76 | — | — | — |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | — | — | 52 | — | — | — | — | 85 | 115 | 132 |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |