The former Gazprom-Rusvelo team, who last raced at the UAE Tour in February, have lost their UCI license as part of a sanction pack applied by the UCI in response to the actions of Russia and Belarus in Ukraine. This has left many non-Russian riders without a contract and with uncertainty over their future, and they are speaking out against the harshness of the measures.
Having parted ways with Gazprom, the Rusvelo team still doesn't hold any guarantees of returning to the peloton in the near future. The team had riders of six nationalities, most noticeably seven riders from Italy where the team was based. Nicola Conci and José Manuel Díaz have taken to Twitter to share a combined message directed towards the UCI and it's partners.
In it, the duo talked about the difficulties that have been had since the sanctions, with their "salaries and goals suspended", besides having "our right to do our job being revoked". "We waited and worked with you and CPA in a professional way, but you now need to take your responsibilities and solve our situation. The time of answers has come. Stop talking start doing. Our Future depends from your choices," they added, before tagging along several UCI entities and media outlets.
Whilst Conci and some of his teammates have been competing for an Italian national team in the past month, the amount of races will now decrease with the end of spring which will see the riders once again absent. Díaz, like many of his non-Italian teammates, has not been in competition since the team was suspended in February.
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(1)🇬🇧The words of this post are addressed to the UCI. It's 50 days already that me and my teammates of the ex-Gazprom Rusvelo Team have seen our right to do our job being revoked. We have seen our salaries and our goals being suspended. We waited and worked with you and CPA
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