Ilnur Zakarin: "I don’t have some special goals and I simply want to do my best because I need this"

Starting his last season as a professional rider, Ilnur Zakarin is thinking of the future after it already. But with that being said, he has a final year to gather some more results and he is taking motivation from that.

“Yes, I think about this 'last time’ all the time,” he says in an interview to Cyclingnews, upon being asked about how he feels about soon no longer being a pro cyclist.

Interviewed the day before he crashed out the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana, Ilnur Zakarin opened up about his thoughts on this being his final season as a pro and what his ambitions are for the future: “I’ll tell you one story about this: when I was in training camp in Calpe this winter, on one of my rides I went up the Col de Rates and I started thinking "hey it’s the last time up this climb, so I have to go up it full gas." And I need this kind of emotion for this year, it’s really important.”

"I want to spend more time with my family, because for Italian or Spanish riders who live here in this part of Europe, after races they can fly [straight] home to friends, family.” Despite not living in his native country of Russia, Zakarin is living with his family in Cyprus for some years already, an uncommon location for a professional rider to set up his base but he has nevertheless been able to become one of the most talented stage-racers of his generation.

“I don’t have some special goals and I simply want to do my best because I need this, when you are in your last year you have to give everything you have.”

Regarding the aftermath of cyclist career he is having some goals in mind already aswell, which have become a big focus for the Russian as he looks to develop cycling within his own nation: “There are not so many riders right now, it’s really difficult because Russia doesn’t have a cycling culture and that’s a big difference between [western] Europe and Russia. Also there are not a lot of races. But I will try to do something about this.”

Zakarin had been racing in Spain this week until a bad crash left him with a concussion and some minor injuries in the face. It is unclear when he will return to competition, but with Gazprom-Rusvelo netting a wildcard to the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico and Vuelta a Catalunya, he will be motivated to return to competition soon to be on the big stage.