Pavel Kochetkov took what seems to be a long overdue first professional victory when he rode to victory as part of a Katusha clean sweep of the podium at the Russian road race championships. Having bridged across to teammate Maxim Belkov in the finale, he made a late attack that allowed him to take a solo win, with Belkov and Sergey Lagutin making it three Katusha riders on the podium.

For years, Pavel Kochetkov has shown his great talent in the biggest races in the world but until today his efforts had always been unrewarded. Most recently, he showed his good form at the Tour de Slovenie where he supported teammate Rein Taaramae while also finishing fourth on the queen stage, and at the Giro d'Italia.

The good results made him one to watch at today's Russian Championships where his Katusha team was under great pressure to defend the they have had every year since 2009. Again they proved to be in a class of their own and this time it was Kochetkov who benefited from his great form to take the win.

The race was held on a tough 175km course in Sevastopol and the heat and the climbs made it a hard event. Katusha did their best to control the many attacks in the beginning and then Kochetkov's teammate Maxim Belkov hit out, spending a big part of the race in front.

With two laps to go, Kochetkov launched a strong attack and bridged across to Belkov who was now the lone leader. The pair worked well together until they knew that they would decide the race. Kochetkov turned out to be the strongest as he launched another attack and then soloed to victory. Belkov held on to take second while Sergey Lagutin and Sergei Chernetckii made it a 1-2-3-4 for the Russian team.

It is still unclear when Kochetkov will first wear his new jersey.