Let them eat caviar! Katusha partners with luxury food firm for riders' nutrition

Katusha’s riders will benefit from a rather exclusive form of sports nutrition this season with news that the Russian team has signed a partnership with one of the world’s leading caviar producers.

Surprisingly, the producer in question, Caviar de Riofrío, isn’t based in Russia, but in a small village in southern Spain – and an import ban on food from the European Union (EU) means the caviar can’t be sold at present in the team’s home country.

Last August, in the wake of economic tensions between Russia and the EU sparked by the Ukraine crisis, Caviar de Riofrío said it needed to find new markets in the United States and Asia, according to a report on the Spanish business news website, Invertia.com.

The firm’s director Alberto Domezain said the Finnish-owned company was reacting to the return it of a consignment 150 kilograms of caviar that had been sent to Russia but rejected due to the import ban.

The business is located within an hour’s drive of Marbella, where there’s certainly no shortage of moneyed Russians – Vladimir Putin owns a palatial property and vineyard there.

There’s no mention of trading sanctions in last week’s press release from Katusha that heralded the co-operation between the team and the Spanish company.

Curiously, the tin being shared by the riders in the accompanying picture proclaims ‘Russian Caviar’ in large letters; the company's website elaborates on that as "Russian-style," and at €1,384.00 for a 500 gram tin, at just shy of €19,000 for 6.8 kilograms, it's a bit more expensive than a fully-specced team bike would be.

Instead, the press release extols the qualities of Caviar de Riofrío that are claimed to make it unique even among this most exclusive of foods, as well as the nutritional benefit to the team’s riders, supplementing their existing diets with “proteins, iodine, minerals, microelements and Omega-3 fatty acids.”

Said to be the world’s first 100 per cent certified organic caviar, the additive-free product is derived from the roe of organically reared sturgeon and won a bronze medal at the Prodexpo-2013 exhibition organised by Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture. 

Katusha’s general manager, Viacheslav Ekimov, said the collaboration was above all “an opportunity to significantly improve our rider’s diets during the racing periods, especially during their participation in the Grand Tours.

“We all know about the nutritional value of a product like caviar, especially when we speak about such a high quality product as Caviar de Riofrio. Our riders have already had the opportunity to try the caviar in the training camp which recently ended in Calpe, and I want to say that all of the guys, without exception, were happy with the news about a permanent collaboration with the Caviar de Riofrio.”

Sergei Kapanen, the company’s general director, said: “Sturgeon caviar has always been associated with Russian cuisine and Russian culture,” and welcomed the partnership with what is the country’s leading professional cycling team, which he described as “the face of Russian cycling in Europe and the world.”

He added: “The products manufactured by our company are distinguished by high quality and ecological purity, which is the hallmark of Caviar de Riofrio.

“We hope that our caviars are not only likely to appeal to riders of Team Katusha, but will become an integral part of their diet, and will help to achieve greater results at the highest international level.”

While it's unlikely a Katusha rider will win the Tour de France this year - Joaquim Rodriguez recently admitted he probably lacks the focus to win a three-week Grand Tour - perhaps they could bring a tin of caviar along on the final day to share with whichever team is quaffing Champagne as the rider in the yellow jersey heads into Paris?