Barcelona offers a way out for Russian cyclists: "If they return to their country, they will exchange their bike for a Kalashnikov"

Russian cyclist seeks Catalan team to continue competing.

It could be the announcement of the young runners of the Lokosphinx, a Russian training team that competes in Spain, who found themselves overnight on March 11 without being able to compete due to the sanctions applied to the Russian sports federations.

The call has a first response: a Catalan team, the Catalunya-Barcelona Cycling Club, based in the Catalan capital, has opened the door for the 22 young cyclists of the Russian team to continue competing in their category with a Catalan card.

"It's the best for them, they are not to blame for what is happening in their country," defends Josep Beltrán, president of the Catalan club.

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Check the farm of Russian cyclists in Tortosa

The change of jersey was managed quickly.

Beltrán, a friend of the president of the Russian cycling federation, the former Olympic champion and gregarious Lance Armstrong, Viatcheslav Ekimov, raised the possibility of enrolling the Lokosphinx runners in his team, with a Catalan license, to comply with the regulations and escape of the sanctions.

"If a Russian athlete is based in Catalonia and competes with a Catalan club, he can compete without a problem," defends a source from the Catalan cycling federation.

"They cannot run with the Russian national team or with a Russian team."

All the members of the Lokosphinx live in a residence on the outskirts of Tortosa, on a farm that the historic Soviet coach Alexander Kuznetsov bought more than 20 years ago.

The technician shapes and modulates the future of Russian cycling in the same way that in his day he gave birth to Ekimov himself;

Evgueni Berzin, champion of the 1994 Giro;

or Vladimir Karpets, with a long career at the Caisse d'Épargne.

"The idea is that they continue to live and train there," explains Beltrán, who has turned a necessity into an opportunity.

His proposal gets some young people out of trouble who, he insists, "are victims" of a serious situation if they return to Russia.

“If they return to their country, they will take away their bike and give them a kalashnikov to go to war with.

Neither the boys nor the directors want to go to Russia,” he says.

And under his discipline, the CC Catalunya-Barcelona makes the leap in quality that it has been looking for for a long time.

Beltrán refounded the club, created in 1946, in 2016 so that his son could compete.

“In the beginning we had five runners.

Few cyclists come out in Catalonia and it is not easy to grow as an entity”, he explains.

His goal is to get a Continental team [the last category of professional cycling] in five years and he considers the eight young Russians in the junior category [between 17 and 18 years old] as a possible base for the future.

“I would like them to train with us,

and that they go from category ”.

For now, the sprinter Gleb Syritsa, under 23, winner of the first two races of the Spanish Cup, will wear his colors.

The new stage begins this Sunday, in the Matinal Ciclista that takes place in Barcelona and is organized by the club itself.

Five of the new incorporations will already compete with the team because they have a Foreigner Identification Number (NIE) and the process of the new federative file is fast.

The pity, explains the president, is that they will not yet wear the colors of the Catalan team.

"There is no company that customizes clothes in less than a week," he laments.

They will run with a jersey without advertising, which does not look as good;

but it will be ready to shine from the start.

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