On Tuesday, the UCI followed the recommendation of the Olympic Committee and suspended all teams registered in Russia or Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came on the eve of the Trofeo Raiglia, sponsored by Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom Rusvelo. Alessandro Fedeli had hoped to celebrate his birthday by racing with the team in his hometown, but was instead turned away by the UCI, who wanted him to race in a no-brand jersey.

Meanwhile, at the start, drone hopper - Androni Giocattoli signed the jersey for Ukraine in support of his young teammate Andrei Ponomar, 19, who did not race.

Fedeli, who signed with Gazprom-RusVelo after the demise of his former team Delko, pointed out the hypocrisy of the UCI allowing Russian and Belarusian nationals on foreign teams to continue racing, but excluding international riders on his Russian team. He pointed out.

"I would like to know at this point why Russian athletes on German and British teams are allowed to continue racing. It is a measure that promotes hatred in an environment that is used to mixing nationalities," Fedeli told Bici.pro (opens in new tab).

"In our team we have Italians, Russians, Czechs like Marcin Vacek, who won in the UAE, and Costa Ricans. Our headquarters is in Italy, our team car has Italian numbers, and our funding comes from Germany."

Fedeli said the team did its best to get them involved in the race. He said, "They would have agreed to spend a year without logos on their jerseys, on their machines, on their bikes. While we were there trying to figure it out, the UCI met at 4:30 PM and at 7 PM they told us to leave."

With the aggression still ongoing and Russian missile strikes destroying Ukrainian homes, businesses, and lives, it seems unlikely that the team's fortunes will turn around anytime soon. They will not make it to Tirreno - Adriatico, nor will they make it to Milan - San Remo.

"The other day we trained for Sanremo for 7 hours and 20 minutes. I trained for 7 hours and 20 minutes for Sanremo the other day. My dreams have been shattered; I'm 26 years old, which is no small feat in today's cycling world. Maybe there is time for young people to leave, but at this point I don't know. Even if they let me start again, the most important race of the season is over."

During the past week, Russian Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) expressed his opposition to the war and asked that individual Russians not become targets of hatred. Wout van Aert and Fabio Jacobsen, winners of Omloop Het Newsblad and Koule Brussel Kouroun, also expressed sympathy for the Ukrainian people.

Fedeli said, "I am on the side of the team and I can't say anything about the war. I was ready to race, but now I have no motivation to train. Let's see what happens. I came back from the Tour of Antalya with Covid. As soon as Antalya passed, the team spent a lot of money to send four people to Teide. We threw it all away! If you're not expected to race for a long time, you might as well rest and recover. I was fine. But on my birthday I imagined a much different ending."