With the UCI Management Committee’s decision last week to ban Russian and Belarusian national teams and / or national selections from the UCI International Calendar, amateur gran fondo riders in those countries do not know if they will be allowed to compete in the 2022 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Trento, Italy later this year.

UCI rules require all participants at the Gran Fondo World Championships to race for their country of citizenship and wear a national team jersey, as it stands now, no riders representing Russia or Belarus would be allowed to compete at the Gran Fondo World Championships.

However, individual Russian and Belarusian riders may still participate and qualify for the World Championships at any of the UCI Gran Fondo World Series events, excluding the now withdrawn Gran Fondo Moscow.

Russian riders already qualified for the 2022 World Championships include Petr Ukhov (M35-39), Irina Ganaeva (F50-54), Sergei Serdiuk (M19-34), Dmitry Murashko (M45-49), Eduard Shageev (M50-54), Olga Mikaya (F40-44), Kirill Krasavin (M19-34), Artem Dubov (M19-34) and Igor Mironov (M55-59).

At the 2021 World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 15 Russian and 2 Belarusian athletes competed with Russian Tatiana Panina (F50-54) earning the best results, 2nd place in the time trial and 3rd in the road race.  Belarussian’s Kirill Kolenchits (M35-39) and Sergey Vroublevski (M45-49) both finished just off the podium in 4th place at the time trial.

Before the pandemic, participation from Russia and Belarus was much larger, 65 athletes raced at the 2019 Gran Fondo World Championships in Poznan, Poland, where Russian Vladimir Kuznetsov (M60-64) won double gold medals in the time trial and road race.

PHOTOS: COLOMBIA ORO Y PAZ