Team Bobyn are sad to announce the retirement of Spartak "Cosmos" Kozlovsky who completes a long line of TB Hillsters in the mould of Vajda, Volkov and Nechayev. A superb hill-sprinter and an entrant in Ukraine's hall of fame for the country all-time best hill sprinters (also in the hall of fame for top SARs riders & highest average)
Born in Ukraine's far west in the small town of Yavoriv in the foothills of the Carpathians almost on the border between Ukraine and Poland. His family were proud Galicians with a mix of Polish and Ukrainian stock.
Unlike many of his contempories -his background is fairly nondescript, he showed promise at school, good at sports, able and conscientious although this ordinariness belies his rather brash, extrovert and sometimes confrontational approach - his favourite pastime was to go to a bar, wind up all the patrons, start a fight and then take a ...
Read moreTeam Bobyn are sad to announce the retirement of Spartak "Cosmos" Kozlovsky who completes a long line of TB Hillsters in the mould of Vajda, Volkov and Nechayev. A superb hill-sprinter and an entrant in Ukraine's hall of fame for the country all-time best hill sprinters (also in the hall of fame for top SARs riders & highest average)
Born in Ukraine's far west in the small town of Yavoriv in the foothills of the Carpathians almost on the border between Ukraine and Poland. His family were proud Galicians with a mix of Polish and Ukrainian stock.
Unlike many of his contempories -his background is fairly nondescript, he showed promise at school, good at sports, able and conscientious although this ordinariness belies his rather brash, extrovert and sometimes confrontational approach - his favourite pastime was to go to a bar, wind up all the patrons, start a fight and then take a step back and watch the fistycuff entail. His applied a similar technique to his cyclng.
He loved cycling and exploring the hills where he lived - especially being away from the company of others. He entered Lviv UNiversity in his youth and cycled for the local university team. Then he was spotted by the TB youth academy who appreciated his potential and promptly signed him up after he completed his studies at the age of 22 in S57.
He spent most of his first season, cleaning and repairing bikes but it was not until S58 he got his first rides - straight into the pro-circuit into D5. Initially he provided support to TB Hillster specialists Vajda-Volkov-Nechayev.
It quickly became apparant that Cosmos had the endurance and ability to be a very good Tour Rider and he quickly established himself as a tour support extraordinaire who was able to provide valuable sprinting and hill abilities for a tour team.
Given his suporting role he was not able to really pick up any places until S61 when he launched a successful breakaway attack in the Oshataki stage of the Oryx and picked up a 7th place. This was his USP going forward.
Kozlovsky became a fixture for TB tours and following the retirements of Nechayev and Vajda he began to take on more prominince. S63 culminated in a superb ride in the Fast on Wheeels and with two places he finished in a respectable 18th in the GC. It was also in S63 Cosmos was able to pick his first rides for the National Team
However it was S64 that saw Cosmos at his peak, with 3 podiums (two of which on tour). Through injury he failed to replicate this form for S65 - although he was part of Ukraine's joint winning Comrade Cup team.
S66 saw Cosmos break some TB records with some very impressive rides in the Minuteman tour but that elusive win still avoided him likewise in the Gods Tour in S67.
Cosmos final swansong was a PB 3rd place in the WTC Budapest - Debrecen in S69.
A great servant to the team, very rugged individualistic approach to his cyclng particularly on his hill-sprint breaks and a prolific tour rider - one of a very few TB riders who has ridden in all the OCM tours between D4-D7. He will always regret not getting that win but he should be proud of his sprint records in the Gods, Minutemen and Oryx tours. Which will take some beating.
Sadly missed - although we're pleased he will be joining the TB coaching team.
CAREER SUMMARY
Races: 330 (313 for TB)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 6
Best Tour GC: SEA TURTLE (D6) GC S61 17th*
Classics: N/A
Placements: 3
Highest ever Ranking: 1143rd (S64)
International Caps: 17
Best Win (as a TB rider): N/A
Best Podium Performance: S66 3rd Race of the Minutemen Stage 6 (D4)
Highest ever Divisional Performance:
S62 (D3) 98th Kazakhstan Cobbles of Astana #55
Best Div 1 N/A
Best Div 1.1 N/A
Best Div 2 N/A
Best Div3 As above
Best Div4 As above
Best Div5 S64 3rd Monte Rosa Tour, Stage 5 - #51
Best Div6 S68 3rd Zakouma Lions Chase #21
Best Div7 S59 18th Fuji to Tokyo #18
Best Div8 N/A
Div9-Div 11 N/A
ND Performance: N/A
Ukraine Club Records: None
Best Performance: S64 3rd Prylukivka - Novopylypivka #52
Best International Performance:
S69 3rd WTC Budapest - Debrecen (WT) #45
S68 13th WTB Hamburg - Lübeck (WT) #49
Best CON performance N/A
Comrade Cup Title x 1 (S65 (joint winners 1 caps)
U23 Honours - N/A
Tour Record (* Club Record)
GODS TOUR Av. Pos. (S67) 43rd
Sprinting Classification: (S67) 5th*
MINUTEMAN (D4) Av. Pos. (S66) 56th
Best stage Performance:(S66) 3rd Concord - Faneuil Hall #51
Sprinting Classification: (S66) 4th *
EDMONTON (D4) Av. Pos. (S68) 90th
GIRO (D4) Av. Pos. (S62) 67th
LA COUPE (D4) Av. Pos. (S63) 90th
STONE CITY (D5) Av. Pos (S64) 66th
FAST ON WHEELS (D5) (S63) 18th Av. Pos (S63) 23rd
EL COROZON (D5) (S64) Av. Pos 26th
MONTE ROSA (D5) Av. Pos (S67) 51st
ORYX (D6) Av. Pos (S64) 62nd
Sprint Classification (S64) 9th*
CESKO (D6) Av. Pos (S69) 44th
SEA TURTLE (D6) GC S61 17th* / Av. Pos (S61) 41st
SANREIZEN (D7) Av. Pos (S59) 92nd
Ukraine