On Tuesday, UCI made a historic decision to ban Russian and Belarusian teams from participating in competitions. This comes in after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and UCI is not the only federation that has banned teams from the following countries.
This decision was seemingly made before the very start of Trofeo Laigueglia, and Russian Team Gazprom-RusVelo was to helm the event. That however won’t be happening and Italian Cyclist Alessandro Fedeli has denounced the decision made by UCI. Fedeli recently changed teams and shifted to Gazprom-RusVelo from Delko Team. He was supposed to join his new teammates on his birthday and kick off his tour with the Trofeo Laigueglia.
The team’s ambitions were squashed away by UCI, as they even decided to wear unbranded jerseys in support of Ukraine. The outcry by Fedeli calls out the hypocrisy of UCI as they are allowing Russian and Belarusian in other foreign teams to participate but his teammates will not be able to participate.
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Alessandro Fedeli made the following statement:
I would like to know at this point why the Russian riders of the German or British teams can continue to race. It is a measure that feeds hatred, in an environment that is used to mixing nationalities.
In our team, there are Italians, Russians, guys from the Czech Republic like [Marcin] Vacek who won in UAE and also from Costa Rica. The headquarters are in Italy, the team cars have Italian plates and the money comes from Germany.
(Courtesy of Bici.pro)
Fedeli is not the only one who tried their best to participate in the Trofeo Laigueglia. Gazprom-RusVelo pledged to race with blank jerseys to show solidarity with Ukraine but were immediately let down by UCI. As the ban goes underway, it is least likely that the team’s financial situation will improve.
Fedeli was busy with rigorous training in order to prepare for the event, and he would be joining his new team on his birthday, now all of his dreams are shattered.
Alessandro Fedeli made the following statement:
The other day I did 7 hours and 20 of training preparing for Sanremo. I’m starting to think I’ll never become what I hoped for. My dreams are shattered. I turned 26, which is not a few in today’s cycling. Maybe the younger ones have time to leave, I don’t know at this point. Even if they let us start again, the most important races of our season have gone.
I’m on the side of the team, and I can’t say anything about the war. We were ready to race, but now the desire to train is gone. Let’s see what happens. I returned from the Tour of Antalya with Covid. As soon as it passed, the team spent some good money sending four of us up to Teide. All thrown away! If the prospect is not to race for a long time, we might as well take a break and recover. I’m fine, I was fine. But certainly, for my birthday I imagined a very different ending.
The decision made by UCI is going to affect a lot of athletes, but is this decision justified? Should all Russian and Belarusian teams be held responsible, even if they had nothing to do with the invasion directly? Stay tuned for more updates!
Also Read: Jumbo-Visma Finally Reinstates Lennard Hofstede After He Refused The COVID-19 Vaccine
Featured Image Via Instagram/alessandrofedeli1
