The race that opens the Italian calendar excludes the Russian team in compliance with the decisions of the UCI before the war in Ukraine
First consequence of the sanctions of the International Cycling Union (UCI) for the war in Ukraine. The organization of the Laigueglia Trophy, which opens the Italian season this Wednesday, has withdrawn the invitation to the Russian team Gazprom, which was unable to start. The measure does not affect Russian cyclists from foreign teams, who are two in the top categories, both on the World Tour: Pavel Sivakov (Ineos) and Alexander Vlasov (Bora). The latter plans to run the Paris-Nice from Sunday. No Russian has been part of the game in Laigueglia.
The UCI has made the decision that the Russian and Belarusian teams, as well as their national teams, cannot compete in any event on the UCI international calendar “with immediate effect”. In this way, not only Gazprom, from the ProTeam, but also the Continental category Vozrozhdenie and the Tula track team are expelled.
Likewise, the appearance of all emblems, names, acronyms, flags and hymns linked to Russia and Belarus is prohibited in all the tests of the UCI lantern calendar. Therefore, the jerseys of the champions of Russia and Belarus are prohibited. Which means that Vlasov will not be able to wear the Russian time trial champion’s jersey. The road champion is Artem Nych (Gazprom), whose last race was the Vuelta a Andalucía. The two Belarusian champions belong to the modest Continental Minsk team: Stanislau Bazhkov (road) and Yauheni Karaliok (time trial).
The Laigueglia Trophy, therefore, a test won last year by Bauke Mollema (Trek), is the first race in which the measures adopted by the UCI are applied and the Gazprom cyclists have been left on the ground.
