Russell Downing

British road cyclist

Russell Downing (born 23 August 1978) is an English former professional cyclist, who rode competitively between 1999 and 2019 for numerous teams, such as and He is the younger brother of fellow cyclist Dean Downing, and both brothers competed largely on the UCI Continental Tour and in British Premier Calendar races.

Downing was born into a bike racing family: as well as his older brother, his father was also a bicycle racer. He was also a talented football player, playing with Rotherham United F. C.'s under 16s team, but Downing was convinced to become a professional cyclist by Milk Race winner Chris Walker, who Downing trained with during his late teens. He was the winner of the British National Road Race Championships in 2005. In addition to his national championships, he was also successful in some multi stage races. His biggest victories came in the 2010 Tour de Wallonie, a 2. HC class event, as well as the 2009 Tour of Ireland. For 2010 he signed a one year contract with the new British Professional Team, , and became the first Briton to win a stage for the team, picking up a win in the Critérium International. His contract was renewed for a further year, for the 2011 season. In November 2011 it was announced that his contract was not being renewed for a third year and he would join the British Continental Team Following the merger of Endura with Team NetApp Downing joined the squad for 2013. In September 2013 it was announced that Russell and Dean Downing would join the new team for 2014. Russell Downing signed for the team for the 2015 season, but returned to Britain with for the 2016 season.