“I am completely against the war”
Russian professional cyclist now rides as a Frenchman
03/04/2022, 1:00 p.m
The war against Ukraine has long since arrived in cycling. The world association UCI has excluded Russian and Belarusian teams. Individual professionals are not affected. Nevertheless, the Russian professional Pawel Siwakow draws his conclusions and drives under a different flag with immediate effect.
The Russian professional cyclist Pavel Sivakov has changed nations due to the war of aggression against Ukraine. Since the 24-year-old also has a French passport, he will fly under a different flag in the future. This was announced by his team Ineos-Grenadiers after approval by the world association UCI. “I’ve wanted to race as a Frenchman for a long time and had applied to the UCI. Given what’s happening in Ukraine, I wanted to speed things up,” said Sivakov.
The tour specialist was born in Italy, his parents moved to France when he was one year old. “As I said before, I am completely against this war and my thoughts are with the Ukrainian people,” said Sivakov. He hopes for peace and a speedy end to the suffering in Ukraine.
The UCI had banned Russian and Belarusian teams from all races and tours, including the Gazprom-Rusvelo team. Individual professionals from affected countries in non-Russian or -Belarusian teams are not affected. These include Siwakow and Alexander Wlasow, who drives for the German team Bora-hansgrohe.
Rapier butt against clan liability
Meanwhile, German professional cyclist John Degenkolb has spoken out against a general ban on Russian and Belarusian cyclists. “You have to differentiate between individual drivers and sponsors like Gazprom,” Degenkolb told the “Frankfurter Rundschau” and referred to the Siwako case before the change of nations. He had “clearly distanced himself from this regime” and a ban would therefore not be the right way.
Sivakov’s compatriot Alexander Vlasov also clearly distanced himself from the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. “Like many other Russians, I just want peace. I’m not a political person and ordinary people like me weren’t asked if we wanted war. It was a shock to everyone and I hope it stops soon,” Vlasov wrote Instagram.
During training, Degenkolb manages to block out thoughts of the war. “But especially as an older driver and father of a family, you question what are we actually doing here now? There is war in the middle of Europe and we are supposed to cycle here now?” Said the winner of Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo 2015: “I hope I urge that the peace negotiations lead to a positive result as soon as possible and that this war is finally over.”