Nikolay Milovidov: the World Championship, "Moskvich" and the rules of the gravel racer

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Useful from the issue

1. Recovery trip after the race

   The day after the race, Nikolai always rides for an hour or two in the first zone. This is the only thing he does without exceptions.

2. Gravel on the highway — a matter of gear

   To go road racing on a gravel with narrow tires, first of all you need a front star of about 50 teeth, the rest is secondary.

3. Not to be malnourished

   According to Nikolai, the main mistake of our athletes is malnutrition. He eats a lot of normal food and only less fat before the races.

4. Tests twice a year

   He donates blood before and after the season, and drinks supplements in courses based on the results. On the eve of delivery, it is better not to drink — it knocks down the indicators.

5. Do not overestimate the peloton

   On the Tsar Grader, Nikolai missed the victorious attack, thinking that everyone was fresh. By the end of a long race, the opponents are usually more tired than they seem.

6. Sport Marathon — overnight

   The race is long and hot: take a skin cream from scratching grass and do not get behind the wheel right after the finish.

7. Asking the sponsor for a real

   Agree on what you can do, and choose sponsors who are close to you in spirit, and not just for a discount.

8. Spikes — fiteru

   Nikolai trusts the position of the spikes on the new shoes only to his biker: it's very easy to put them wrong yourself.

From fixers to racers

Four years ago, Nikolai, according to him, was a purebred fixer with parties and booze. On a ten-day multi-day tour of the Caucasus, an unfamiliar coach wrote to him and predicted that he would not travel for more than four days. And so it turned out: on the fourth day he was covered, and he came down. After that, the coach offered to work seriously, and Nikolai, after thinking for a week, agreed. The first month he was not allowed to ride at all — it was a strong overdrive.

Since then they have been working together and have become friends. The coach explained to him what adaptation periods are and that training is a science, not just pressure. Nikolay evaluates himself as an athlete with a four: he does everything that is written, but he can skip training, which he immediately warns about, and forgets to take regular tests. The basic rule that he learned: if you want to be fast, you need to train; if you want fitness, say so right away.

How does he train and recover

Nikolai hardly does any special warm-up: he gets to the road races in Moscow on his own, and the first laps serve as a warm-up, and before gravel races he usually lives in a camp. He admits that it would be right to warm up, and jokes that he will start when everyone starts. But he does one thing for sure: the day after the road race — a recovery trip of an hour or two in the first zone.

In winter, he has about 11-12 hours a week, two-hour workouts, a cycle of three weeks of loading and one unloading, plus a gym. He hates only the 30-minute FTP test, where you need to keep the figure by watts. He takes a blood test twice a year — before the season and after, is going to do a gas analysis for the first time, drinks vitamins and minerals in courses, which are prescribed by tests. He feeds without prohibitions, but less fat before the races: according to him, the main problem of our athletes is that they are malnourished. Bike fit has been making the same fiter for him since 2016, and he never puts spikes on new shoes himself.

Highway or gravel with narrow tires

Last season, for the first time, Nikolai had a full-fledged highway instead of a gravel with narrow wheels. He sees the main difference in the programs: as soon as the front star was installed on the gravel with 50 teeth, the difference almost disappeared, and the aerodynamics of modern gravel diggers, according to him, turned out to be quite decent. For serious road races, a road bike is needed, and gravel is enough for a couple of amateur starts per season. The main advantage of a separate bike is that you don't need to flip the wheels and cassette.

He rides on an inexpensive frame of a Chinese brand with which he communicates directly — after the season he checked it from the inside with a flashlight and found no cracks or burrs. The transmission is SRAM Force 1x, the outriggers are 130-140 mm, so the monocoque steering wheel does not fit it. True, in the mountains of Spain there were not enough 50x33 gears, and some climbs had to be done standing up. He rides almost all gravel races on road contacts, but admits that they can not be trusted completely.

Tsar Grader and the worst race of the year

At the Tsar Grader-2025, Nikolai bet on a former professional and aggressive amateurs, but an experienced opponent won the race, who, together with his partner, chose the exact moment on the last grader until the group reacted. Nikolay became the second and says that it was nice to lose to such a rider. In a muddy area, he was flooded so that he was driving almost blindly, focusing on the bright pink bike in front. The lesson he learned: he overestimated the peloton — everyone was more tired than it seemed, and it was possible to react.

He calls the Galician Lake District the worst race of the year: liquid mud with traces of a herd, a bicycle that cannot be rolled, and the idea that the organizers do not respect the participants. 50 km before the finish, he got off. It was because of this race that he missed the Cover and dropped out of the overall CSG standings.

Sports Marathon and World Cup

Nikolay goes to the sports marathon every year since the first edition and won this year. In the early years, the track went through bumpy fields, where MTBs won, but now it has become gravel. Tips: this is a festival with concerts and activities included in the ticket, so you need to go overnight, take a skin cream from the grass that scratches your feet, and not return home the same evening — one day he fell asleep at the wheel on the way back.

He got into the World Championship almost by accident: living in Spain before The Traka, he broke into the qualifying stage in Monaco — 112 km and about 2500 meters of the set, the hardest race of his life, with a heavy bike and without feeding bottles. At the championship itself there were about 600 participants and corridors of fans with chainsaws without chains. Later in Portugal, he qualified for the 2026 World Cup in Australia. According to Nikolai, it turned out to be easier to go to the world championship than to get into the national team of his region: without a sports school background and the category of an adult amateur, the region does not take, and the category cannot be obtained without the region. Unbound remains a dream, but rests on a visa and money.

Sponsors, team and Moskvich

Nikolai sells places on his uniform: he draws the design himself, pays for the production himself. He advises asking sponsors without overestimating what you can do, but he is no longer ready to work for a discount or "for respect" — it is more important that the sponsor coincides with you in spirit. The delay in pre-ordering his uniform due to production taught him how important it is to keep his word to customers: he gave longsleeves to those who waited a long time. He thinks about a small closed team of two or three riders, including a girl, who train and race together, but for now he is looking for strong partners.

The main prize of the season is the Moskvich electric car, the presentation of which was delayed for a long time. Nikolai decided not to sell it: the electric car is supposed to have free parking and free travel on toll roads, and when selling it would have to pay tax. For him, this is the first car and the memory of the race.

How to improve the Russian gravel series

Nikolay supports the idea of the rating: it motivates people. But he suggests allowing you to skip one race and count points based on the best results. He himself won almost all the starts, was second twice, but missed one race and as a result did not even get into the top 10. He remembers the cyclocross cup, where it was possible to skip a stage, and the fight in the final was only more interesting.

In his opinion, there are a lot more gravelers in Russia than can be seen at the starts, but a trip to Moscow is expensive for many, and the right to miss one race would give them a chance to fight. Ilya replies that he is just going to count the amount without one or two races, and tells that on the next Tsar Grader the start will be in a civilized place, and the camp will be at will.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Familiarity and form
2. 04:43Bicycles and a new frame
3. 08:50The story of the "Moskvich"
4. 14:02Road season and LaStadas
5. 17:08Highway versus gravel road
6. 18:55Warm-up and recovery
7. 22:59Coach and approach to training
8. 28:31Tests, supplements and bike fit
9. 32:41Galician Zaozerye
10. 34:21How was the Tsar Grader
11. 41:36Team and sponsors
12. 51:01Sports Marathon
13. 1:03:29World Championship and selection in Monaco
14. 1:13:24Nutrition, training and tires
15. 1:24:37Ideas for CSG

Mentioned in this episode

Tsar Grader · Russian Gravel Series · Sport Marathon · Galician Lake District · Fury Road · The Traka · Unbound · Gravel World Championship · LaStrada · SRAM Force · The Muscovite