Does the UCI work in the interest of cycling or does it exist only for money?

Director of the UCI World championships Gran Fondo Vladimir Kuvalja is disappointed with the correspondence with the representatives of the International Cycling Union (UCI), stating that he had absolutely no support, but only received requests and blackmail during the preparation of the competition and the championship held in East Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

BiH won the Gran Fondo World championships back in 2018 in Innsbruck, and it was held last October, in a situation when most events were postponed. Neither the Kovid protocols nor the pandemic stopped the organizer from making a great event, but Kuvalja was disappointed with the relationship he had with people who should take care of cycling.

– Since we won the championships, no UCI representative has come to us to see how they are preparing, what challenges we are facing and asked if we need some kind of support. Everything they did for three years comes down to conditioning and imposing obligations. We didn't have any rights, they didn't even come to the championships, and the marketing director called us a third world country and said very mockingly that we didn't matter to anyone. I think it is a big scandal, because we, as a small country, gave more than we could for the development of cycling. Apart from this event, we have been successfully organizing the “Belgrade – Banja Luka” race for 15 years, the Tour de Serbia is also our pride, and there is also the Grand Prix in mountain biking – said Kuvalja, who is also the president of the Balkan Cycling Union.

He states that due to the pandemic, he had great difficulties with finances, but that in spite of everything, he organized an event in which a much smaller number of participants performed than the UCI presented to us.

– In such a situation, it would be normal for the UCI to offer to reduce the amount of money for the license, but that did not happen. Sponsor conditions have changed, but the UCI has not given up on its own. It seems that only money matters to them. In the conversation with the organizers of the other races, I realized that we are all in the same problem and the question is how and whether many will continue to organize the races, but it seems that no one cares. Last year, we managed to hold the “Belgrade – Banja Luka” race, just like this one, and in addition to the World Championship, we also held a qualifying race. We believe that, at the very least, we deserve better treatment and, if nothing else, normal communication with the headquarters of world cycling – said Kuvalja.