Russian team takes UCI to court over ban

Banned team awaits verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, reports Chris Marshall-Bell

The management of the former second-tier Russian team Gazprom-RusVelo are optimistic of winning an unprecedented court case against cycling’s governing body the UCI, after alleging that they were shut down without a justified reason last spring.

Five days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, 2022, the UCI announced that all Russian and Belarusian teams would be suspended with immediate effect.

Gazprom-RusVelo looked elsewhere for replacement sponsors in an effort to continue racing, and even offered to compete in plain white jerseys.

But on 27 March the team’s general manager, Renat Khamidulin, admitted defeat and began the process of winding down the team, leading to the redundancies of 21 riders and dozens of staff. To date, only 11 riders have found new teams, and only one of the nine Russian riders.

The drama, however, did not stop there. On 1 September the team began legal proceedings against the UCI at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) claiming that their suspension from operating “was a political decision” only, and that “there was no logic in it”.

“It’s about how legal the decision was, and if the management of the UCI made the decision according to their emotions or because they wanted to do something in favour of the International Olympic Committee’s [IOC] recommendations,” Khamidulin explained to Cycling Weekly via a translator. “Was it legal? Was it fair?