Dimitri Borisovich Konyshev (; born 18 February 1966) is a retired Russian road bicycle racer and current sports director.
During his 17-year professional career, Konyshev achieved stage victories in all three Grand Tours, with a total of nine wins. He claimed three stage victories at the Tour de France, four at the Giro d'Italia, and one at the Vuelta a España. He also won the points classification in the Giro d'Italia in 2000 and the intergiro classification in the Giro d'Italia in 1997.
Konyshev’s son, Alexander Konychev, is also a professional cyclist, representing Italy.
Early life Dimitri (often spelled Dmitry) Borisovich Konyshev was born in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia).
Konyshev grew up within the Soviet sports system of the 1980s. He initially tried playing handball, but decided to take up cycling in 1984. The switch was reportedly inspired by his hero Sergei Sukhoruchenkov’s victory in the Olympic road race at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.
Career Amateur years (1986 - 1989) Konyshev earned his first career victory after winning stage 10 of the 1986 edition of the Coors Classic. He defeated Greg LeMond and Phil Anderson in the sprint.
In 1987, Konyshev achieved several victories, including four six-stage races, with two overall and two at one-day events. His season began in January with the Gran Premio Palio del Recioto, where he won with his teammates Vasily Zhdanov and Djamolidine Abdoujaparov. He won the GP Liberazione in his second Italian race, out-sprinting West German Bernd Gröne and finishing three seconds ahead of the peloton.
In the USSR, Konyshev and his team raced in the Tour of Sochi, where he finished fifth in the competition.
In May, Konyshev received three stage wins. This was followed by placing eighth overall at the Course de la Paix, finishing over 5 minutes down on Uwe Ampler.
He went to Austria for the Österreich-Rundfahrt, where he did not finish below ninth position in any of the nine stages. Following a stage win in stage 3, he won the overall race by 1' 25" to Austrian Helmut Wechselberger.
He finished in the top 10 for seven of the 12-stage races at the Tour de l'Avenir. He won stage 7, a mountain stage, finishing in Strasbourg from an early breakaway. He went on to win the points classification and finish 24th overall.
In 1988, Konyshev finished fifth in the Tour of Sochi.
In February 1988, Konyshev won the red jersey for points classification and two stages at the Vuelta a Cuba. He won two stages at the Giro delle Regioni, a race he had won overall in 1987. This consistency continued with top 10 placements in most stages at the Course de la Paix, finishing eleventh overall, just over two minutes down on Uwe Ampler.
Konyshev then won the amateur version of the Giro d'Italia, the Giro Ciclistico d'Italia. He also took three stage victories.
His string of results in 1987–88, culminating with winning the Giro d’Italia “Under‑26” in 1988, caught the attention of pro team Alfa Lum, and Konyshev went professional with the team in 1989.
Alfa Lum (1989 to 1990) 1989: World silver medal Konyshev's 1989 season started in Europe with the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali. The first stage was a sprint, where Konyshev finished third behind Stefano Allocchio and Sean Kelly. The first major race of the season was the Tirreno–Adriatico, where he managed three top-10 finishes in bunch sprints.
He then advanced onto the Giro del Trentino, where he finished 17th overall at the three-stage race.
At the Giro di Toscana, Konyshev finished second behind Maurizio Fondriest and beat Gianbattista Baronchelli in an eight-man sprint for the line.
The next race on Konyshev's calendar was the Giro d'Italia, a Grand Tour. 1989 was the first year that a Soviet would ride a Grand Tour, as previously, all Soviet cyclists had been prevented from riding professionally. During stage 5, Konyshev earned fifth place, followed by tenth in stage 6. In stage 10, he beat the eventual winner, Laurent Fignon, in the bunch sprint to claim sixth. His best result of the Giro came during Stage 9, which finished in Gubbio atop a mountain. Konyshev ended second behind Bjarne Riis in the three-man sprint for the line.
Konyshev's first win of the season came in August, at the Coppa Ugo Agostoni. In August 1989, he competed in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships and took second place behind Greg LeMond.
Konyshev then advanced to Giro dell'Emilia. Here, he won a 10-man reduced bunch sprint to take his second victory of the year.
His 1989 season ended with the Firenze–Pistoia, an individual time trial (ITT). Konyshev finished 24th, over 5 minutes down on winner Tony Rominger.
1990: First Grand Tour stage victory Konyshev rode for for a second season. His season started with the Dwars door België, where he finished in the second bunch and sprinted to 10th place.
He then competed in the Gent–Wevelgem and finished in 8th place.
After the cobbled classics, he travelled to Italy to prepare for the Giro d'Italia. The first preparation race was the Giro del Trentino, where he sprinted to 3rd place in Stage 1. He fared better at the Giro di Toscana, where he sprinted to ninth with the third bunch of cyclists to cross the line.
His second Grand Tour was once again the Giro d'Italia. After the breakaway in Stage 6, Konyshev was in the chasing bunch and sprinted to 7th. In Stage 9, Konyshev and Vladimir Poulnikov managed to get away on the final climb, where Poulnikov then attacked to go solo. Konyshev won the sprint of the remaining riders, coming in second place. During Stage 14, Konyshev finished 6th. Stage 16 was a mountain stage finishing atop Pordoi Pass. Gianni Bugno and Charly Mottet got away up the hill. The chasing group slowly whittled down, with Konyshev dropping and finishing in 6th. The last stage where Konyshev attained a top 10 finish was Stage 17, where he finished 8th in the bunch sprint. Overall, Konyshev came 30th out of 163 finishers.
After the Giro, Konyshev headed back to the Soviet Union to compete in the national championships. He won the race, beating teammates Piotr Ugrumov and Vladimir Pulnikov in a sprint.
Later in June, the GP Industria & Artigianato was held. Nearing the end of the race, Konyshev attacked multiple times to drop the other riders and won by five seconds beating Massimo Ghirotto.
10 days later, he began his first Tour de France. Konyshev would become the first-ever rider from the Soviet Union to win a stage in the Tour de France by winning Stage 17. Konyshev made it into the break of the day. With Greg LeMond getting a puncture and the peloton waiting for him, it gave the breakaway the chance to succeed. Johan Bruyneel attacked through the mountain points with Konyshev on his wheel, and the two rode away from the bunch together. It came down to a sprint where Konyshev beat Bruyneel by one second, taking his first ever Grand Tour stage.
After the Tour, Konyshev was in 25th and 3rd in the youth classification.
Konyshev only rode four further races in the 1990 season. The first was the Giro del Veneto, where a reduced bunch of five riders made their way to the line after the hilly course. Konyshev ended up finishing fourth. He then competed in the UCI Road World Championships, where he once again rode the Road race, this time with considerable scrutiny from spectators following the previous year's performance. He ended up working for teammate Piotr Ugrumov, who finished eleventh. Konyshev came home 45 seconds down in 30th. His final two races were the Trofeo Baracchi and the Giro dell'Emilia; he didn't finish the first and came 77th in the second.
TVM (1991 to 1992) 1991: Two more Tour Stage wins Konyshev started the 1991 season with a team change, joining the Dutch team.
His first race was Trofeo Pantalica, where he finished 12th equal in the main bunch. He then competed in the Tirreno–Adriatico, where he sprinted to win Stage 3.
Working for Dane Jesper Skibby at the Tour of Flanders, Konyshev came across the line in the fifth bunch of cyclists, placing 26th.
Later in April, he rode the Grand Prix Pino Cerami, finishing 8th as last place in the chasing bunch of lone winner Andrei Tchmil.
He then competed in the Ardennes classics, which started with La Flèche Wallonne, where Konyshev was joint leader. He finished in 5th position, 3' 02" down on the winner.
Next was the Amstel Gold Race, where three riders got away and sprinted for the victory. However, Konyshev was in the main peloton and finished 77th in the sprint for the remaining places.
Starting in his first Grand Tour for the year, Konyshev lined up with the number 111 on his back. It was his first time participating in the Vuelta a España. Stage 1 was a team time trial (TTT) in teams of three. Konyshev's team came 5th in the stage, placing him 15th going into the Vuelta. Stage 2a was a sprint where Konyshev came 12th. Stage 2b was another TTT; this time, all of the team's riders rode together on the 41 km course. TVM came fourth in the Stage, 1'37" behind winners . This moved him to 24th, almost 2 minutes down overall. Stage 3 was considerably more difficult. This time, Konyshev led out teammate Jesper Skibby, who took the win with Konyshev finishing 5th. He abandoned the race during Stage 5 with a broken collarbone.
The next race for Konyshev was the Tour de France, where he came as a domestique for Gert-Jan Theunisse, who would finish 13th overall, and hunt Stage wins. Konyshev's first opportunity came on Stage 9, when the breakaway he was in made it to the final two kilometers, with attacks from the Belgian Johan Bruyneel, who was only caught with 800m to go. Mauro Ribeiro attacked and held off with Laurent Jalabert second and Konyshev in third. Stage 19 was Konyshev's next chance at winning. He was in the breakaway of the day with Pascal Richard. With 800m to go, Konyshev started his sprint. Richard came around and celebrated; as he did so, Konyshev passed him on the line, taking the stage victory.
The final stage of the Tour finished on the Champs-Élysées in a bunch sprint. Lemond attacked and held the bunch off, getting a lead of 50 seconds, but the team of winner Miguel Induráin paced him down, ensuring the race would end in a sprint. With 2km to go, the sprint trains of TVM and , who were riding for Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, were neck and neck. Abdoujaparov opened the sprint and, with his elbows out style, crashed into the barriers, colliding with many of the competitors and knocking them over. Konyshev, on the other side of the road, was unaffected by this incident and finished in 1st place, taking his second stage this edition and the last Grand Tour stage win for a Soviet. Konyshev placed 52nd overall in the Tour.
In August, Konyshev had three races: Züri-Metzgete, Trittico Premondiale I, and Giro del Veneto, and he came 19th, 6th, and 19th, respectively. The Grand Prix de la Libération was a stand-alone team time trial event, where teams would field six riders over a 90 km course. TVM placed 5th, 1' 33" down on winners . Konyshev's season ended at Paris–Tours, where he led Johan Capiot to victory in a mass bunch sprint.
1992: World Bronze medal Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, all Soviet athletes were now to ride under the flag of Russia. Still riding for the , Konyshev's season started at Milan–San Remo, where he attacked the Cipressa and got away with another rider. The attempt was in vain, as they were caught shortly after by the team, pacing for Moreno Argentin.
The first major result of the season came during the Amstel Gold Race, which was a 247.5 kilometre hilly classic, ending in an uphill mass sprint. Winner Olaf Ludwig was leading to the bottom of the hill and started his sprint early. Konyshev was part of the main pack that fought to catch Ludwig, but ended up finishing in 3rd place.