Il Tour of Italy get to the heart of the matter. There are those who dream of the pink jersey, those who fight day after day to save themselves and those who, like Ilnur Zakarin Instead, he is forced to to be a spectator due to a situation much bigger than himselfThe war in Ukraine has left its mark on every field, and sport has been no exception.
But those who paid the price were also professionals who right now just wish they could get on their bikes and do what they do best: pedal and make their fans dream, especially in a dark time like this.
Stop Gazprom
La Gazprom-Rusvelo, instead, it remains at the stake because Russian team with Russian sponsor and does not even have the chance to appear on the international calendar or dream of a wild card for some race. However, riders of other nationalities are also blocked within the group, further complicating the situation.
The riders have tried to make their voices heard several times, so far in vain, and among them there is also Ilnur Zakarin, who is remembered by Giro d'Italia fans for the two stages he won at the Giro in two particular places: the first in 2015 at the Imola racetrack and then four years later, in 2019, at the top of the Nivolet hill.
Some hold their breath remembering the risks they have run on several occasions while descending, not exactly their favourite terrain, with the terrible fall in 2016 down from Colle dell'Agnello which sent shivers down the spines of everyone who was following the stage.
Few people know that at the beginning of 2022, The thirty-two-year-old from Tatarstan had announced that this would be his last seasonA vintage that he had imagined to be decidedly different.
«The season – said Zakarin – had started quite well, After a series of races I went with the team to a training camp in the high mountains of Tenerife. As soon as they started suspending Russian athletes, the team management immediately turned to theUCI to change the name and continue to race under a neutral flag, but there was no response, which was very surprising.
«The team has many foreign riders and staff members, all these people were left without work».
Nightmare or reality?
A surreal situation and Ilnur himself found himself taken aback.
«I returned to my family in Cyprus – says Zakarin – and they supported me a lot. You give your whole life to your favorite sport, you make a lot of sacrifices and you put your whole soul into cycling, then UCI changes your life overnight and you find yourself in this situation against your will.
«I wrote a post on Instagram, asking the UCI to reconsider, but they only replied that they were waiting for a decision from the CAS. I think the attitude of the UCI was very strange.We won't let you compete, but we won't let you break your contract to do so either."
Tenacity and hope
"I have never been involved in politics," Zakarin adds, "and I don't discuss it, because I am an athlete and I have dedicated my entire life to sport so that sport can unite all the nations of the world. When a rider wins, the first thing people look at is his name, not his nationality.Now I continue to play sports, because I'm convinced that sooner or later we'll be allowed to compete. It's not easy, but when you have family, nothing is impossible.
«We have good relationships with the guys on the team, In group chats, we try to resolve the current situation, but it's been a long time since I contacted the management, I don't know what their current state of mind is."
The weeks pass and Ilnur, like his teammates, remains in this limbo among the "colors that are suspended", without being able to put a number on their shirt.
