The Russian cycling team Gazprom-RusVelo has an expiration date of March 27. This is the deadline set by his manager to change the situation of his license with the International Cycling Union (UCI), an organization that on March 1 decided to ban all teams and sponsors from Russia and Belarus and strip both countries of the scheduled events on its territory due to the military invasion of Ukraine.
Renat Khamidulin, manager of Gazprom-RusVelo, mentioned in an interview with Lello Ferrara on social networks that the team is looking for alternatives to be able to maintain its structure, however, despite the fact that they have proposed solutions to the UCI, they have not obtained satisfactory answers for part of the highest cycling body, threatening to be the first cycling team to disappear.
“The UCI mentioned that two things were not right: the sponsor Gazprom and the name RusVelo, which is reminiscent of Russia. I explained that the team is based in Italy and the management company in Switzerland, while the sponsor, as documented, is Gazprom Germany. We offered to run in a white jersey with a message of peace, but that was not enough for the UCI. We sought a dialogue and wrote to him, but the UCI has not even responded to us,” Khamidulin said.
On March 1 the Russian and Belarusian national teams were banned from all UCI events, while six teams, including Gazprom-RusVelo, had their UCI team status revoked. Its ranks have 21 runners, nine of them Russian, however, the governing body of cycling ruled that Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete individually under a neutral flag.
“We have a healthy, competitive and winning company, with an efficient staff. I think it can be an important starting point for a sponsor. We are giving our best, but unfortunately we have decided that if there is no solution by March 27 we will have to close, “said the manager in statements compiled by Spazio Cycling.
Infobae pointed out that the only high-level Russian formation of the international peloton should soon participate in three events on the world calendar, the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Milan-San Remo in Italy and the Tour of Catalonia in Spain.
Cycling Weekly reported that French sports equipment manufacturing company Look Cycle ended its partnership and technical support with the team in early March.
Gazprom-RusVelo, which races in the UCI ProTour, was founded in 2011. They were originally just RusVelo, before Gazprom joined in 2016. They were ranked 30th in the UCI world rankings last year and have won two races so far this year, one stage of the Antalya Tour and one of the UAE Tour, by the Italian Matteo Malucelli and the Czech Mathias Vacek, respectively.
Semi-public Gazprom is Russia’s largest gas company. This company was also one of the main sponsors of UEFA from 2012 until the European body decided to end their agreement at the beginning of March. Previously, German soccer club Schalke 04 also opted to remove advertising from Gazprom, its main sponsor for 15 years, from its shirts.