The stars were sent forward for the minute’s silence at Tirreno Adriatico – and the only Ukrainian in the field: Mark Padun (centre).
Photo: imago images / LaPresse
The place is manageable, only about 2000 people live in Murlo. The Tirreno Adriatico long-distance trip has nevertheless chosen the village near Siena in Tuscany as its stage destination. A school class is also among the onlookers. Instead of the usual gossip papers that sponsors are happy to provide, the children brought their own banners with them. They then express their wish for peace, after an end to the war in Ukraine.
These children have produced the most outspoken protest yet against Russia’s war of aggression at this professional cycling race – shaming the adults in the process. Of course, there was also a minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of the war. And when the name of Ukrainian professional cyclist Mark Padun is called, the only Ukrainian in the whole peloton, extra applause breaks out. But Padun himself does not ride the wave of sympathy. “I want to race here, race well. I don’t want to comment on the political situation. Please understand that,” he says to “nd”.
The most visible – and yet invisible – sign that war is raging on the other side of Europe at this bike race in Italy is that there is one less team bus than planned at the start and finish. Due to the sanctions against Russia, the Gazprom Rusvelo racing team was excluded from the competition. “We are in line with politics and international sport here,” says race director Mauro Vegni. He also set his own little signal. »We had a lot of requests from teams who wanted to move up. But then we decided to leave the space free,” he says.
This episode typifies the mood that prevails in cycling. On the one hand, the horror of the war is great. “It’s a bad situation. Nobody expected a war in Europe in 2022,” says the German professional cyclist Emanuel Buchmann to the “nd”. On the other hand, the tendency to focus on work and ignore everything else is widespread. “We live here in our own world, are busy planning the race, when who will train on the roller and from which direction the wind blows,” explains Rolf Aldag, Buchmann’s sports director at Team Bora. Of course, it’s not as if Aldag would completely forget about the war over it. Last year, he himself looked after the Ukrainian Mark Padun as sporting director at Bahrain Victorious. Both then changed teams, but Aldag contacted Padu immediately after the first attacks and encouraged him. “It’s different when you personally know someone who is affected than when you only see the war from the news,” says Aldag thoughtfully.
He still does his job, like so many here. Yaroslav Popowych, on the other hand, no longer wanted to think about his work. The former professional cyclist from the Ukraine is also a sports director and was supposed to go to the Tirreno Adriatico long-distance trip for the Trek racing team. But then he asked for an exemption. “I can’t think of it,” he said. Instead, he now helps Ukrainian athletes to travel to Italy, he says in a video interview. He also reports receiving a call-up letter from the Ukrainian army: “I don’t know what that means for me, I’m in Italy.”
Renat Khamidulin is also connected to the video conference. In it, the Gazprom Rusvelo team manager condemns the war. He suggested to the world association UCI that the team could take part in races in neutral white clothing, white vehicles and even the words “Peace” on them. “We wanted cycling to set a positive example,” he says. The UCI, however, waived and did not respond to inquiries from the “nd” about it.
The case is delicate. There’s a lot of Russia in the name of the team alone. The license is also in Russian. »But the main sponsor is the German branch of Gazprom. The management of the team is based in Switzerland, the official seat is in Italy,” assures Khamidulin. And in addition to nine Russian professionals, the team also includes seven Italians, two Czechs, one Spaniard, one Norwegian and one professional from Costa Rica. Even supervisor Popovych regrets the fate of these drivers. ‘You’re just unlucky in this situation. What can they do about it, except that they have this sponsor. Now I see many families in trouble, and it’s even more difficult for Renat to find a sponsor for the next year,” Popovych says thoughtfully.
There are no Russian-Ukrainian encounters in the Tirreno, the spring stage race between the Italian coasts of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. Russian professionals are not at the start. They are allowed to race under a neutral flag if they are under contract with a non-Russian employer. But that only applies to very few drivers. One would be Bora professional Alexander Vlasow. But he is currently driving on the parallel French long-distance trip Paris – Nice – and has clearly distanced himself from the war: »I just want peace. I am not a political person. Normal people like me weren’t even asked if they wanted this war at all.«
Vlasov competes there as a neutral driver on the way to the Mediterranean coast. ‘There’s no mention of his nationality, no national anthem would be played if he won. He is only allowed to ride on the basis of labor law regulations,” explains Enrico Della Casa, President of the European Cycling Union UEC. “If someone has a non-Russian employer, he also has the right to fulfill his contract. You can compare that to a Russian technician who works for Telekom in Germany,” Della Casa continues. When it comes to sanctions, however, he still sees room for improvement. “The next few days will be about how to deal with officials from Russia and Belarus,” he says.
At the same time, he organizes concrete help: »We are setting up a fund for Ukrainian cyclists. In coordination with the associations from Turkey, Poland and Switzerland, we want to help them with training and competition opportunities. It’s about athletes who were already in these countries and were then prevented from traveling further because of the war.« A few days ago, the second-class Polish racing team HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski took an even more pragmatic approach. Instead of going to bike races, the team used its own bus to transport refugees from Ukraine. He was certainly of better use then.
