On the waterfront of Lido di Camaiorethe starting point of the long-distance journey Tirreno-Adriatico, the entrances of some sea resorts are decorated with the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine. Mark Padun, the only Ukrainian professional cyclist in the peloton, always gets a special round of applause at the daily presentation of the professional cyclists. A whole school class arrived in Murlo, the starting point of the 3rd stage, with self-painted peace banners.
horror and pragmatism
Padun himself does not want to talk about the war in his homeland. But the Russian invasion of the neighboring country has also shaken the hearts of many professional cyclists. “It’s so sad what’s happening there”says caleb ewan, winner of the 3rd stage on Wednesday (03/09/2022), to the sports show. The Australian also seems a little clueless. “I don’t know what to do”, he says.
That reflects the mood in the field quite well. Many are appalled. “Of course I follow the news. It moves you. But it’s also part of doing our job here,” says Nikias Arndt from team DSM. And that means for him “to focus fully on the race for the next five and a half hours”. That is pragmatism, an escape to work, but also the assertion of normality in times that are not normal.
Russian team Gazprom-Rusvelo excluded
The race director Tirreno, Mauro Vegni, even sees a motor for normal cooperation in cycling: “We were among the first to bring about a fresh start at the beginning of the pandemic. We are now tired of Covid and horrified by the war that overshadows everything. But we can also now find common ground again.”
At the moment, however, demarcation is the issue. The Gazprom-Rusvelo racing team, originally invited with a Wild cardwas awarded by the world association UCI excluded from all international sporting events as a Russian racing team. “We are in line with politics here”says vegetarian. He made a small mark himself. “We had a lot of requests from teams who wanted to move up, but then we decided to leave the space free.”explains Vegni, who is also head of the Giro d’Italia is. A simple move up would probably be too much of normality.
Call-up order for Ukrainian supervisor
Yaroslav Popovich is not there either. The Ukrainian, as a professional cyclist, among other things, third in the Giro d’Italia 2003, was supposed to be the sporting director for team Trek Segafredo to Tirreno come. “I then told my bosses that I couldn’t concentrate on work in this situation. I’m more concerned with helping Ukrainian cyclists to come to Italy and train here”, he said in a video interview. Popovich also said that in his old homeland he was sent a certificate of conscription into the Ukrainian army. “I don’t know what that means for me now, I’m in Italy”he said.