Following the Russian attack on Ukraine, German professional cyclist John Degenkolb has spoken out against a general ban on Russian and Belarusian cyclists.
"You have to differentiate between individual riders and sponsors like Gazprom. Professionals such as Pavel Sivakov may be a Russian citizen, but he has clearly distanced himself from this regime. That is exactly the right approach. It would not be right to ban him," said Degenkolb in an interview with the "Frankfurter Rundschau". Siwakow ultimately switched nations due to the Ukraine conflict and will now ride for France, where he grew up.
The UCI had banned Russian and Belarusian teams from all races and tours, including the Gazprom-Rusvelo team. Individual Russian and Belarusian professionals in non-Russian or non-Belarusian teams are not affected. Sivakov rides for the British team Ineos-Grenadiers.
In addition to Sivakov, his compatriot Aleksandr Vlasov is also in the German team Bora-hansgrohe in the World Tour. The latter clearly distanced himself from the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. "Like many other Russians, I just want peace. I am not a political person and normal people like me were not asked if we wanted war. It was a shock for everyone, and I hope it ends soon," Vlasov wrote on Instagram.
Degenkolb manages to block out thoughts of the war during training. "But especially as an older rider and family man, you do question what we're actually doing here now? There's a war going on in the middle of Europe and we're supposed to be racing here?" said the winner of Paris-Roubaix and Milan-Sanremo 2015: "I sincerely hope that the peace negotiations lead to a positive outcome as quickly as possible and that this war finally comes to an end."
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