Luca Braidot was unable to participate in the international event that preceded the world cup on April 10 in Petropolis in Brazil (race won by Martin Vidaurre). Here are his words, where he asks that this rule be analyzed:
“Yesterday we were forced to stand still. We would have liked to participate in a test of the Brazilian international circuit xco on the route that will host the world cup next week. We came here 12 days before because it was the best thing to do to prepare for the first important event of the season and participating in this race would have been part of the optimal approach to the cup race.
There is a federal rule that prohibits the best Italian athletes from participating in any other cycling event if an international race is held in Italy on the same weekend, so we were unable to race.
Luca continues: "Given that we would have been here in any case in these days and that we did not prefer this race to that of Nalles, we believe that this rule does not take into account the needs of high-level international professional riders and teams that may find themselves. in situations like the one we are experiencing, protecting only the organizers of Italian international competitions who, in our opinion, do not need to be protected by rules of this type because they are doing an excellent job of image and protecting themselves with the quality of their events.
It wasn't about being smart and "running away" from home races, it was about getting ready for the race that really matters.
This rule did not allow it and we would no longer want to find ourselves in a situation that, after all, for us Italian athletes is even embarrassing to explain to our foreign colleagues.
We hope that the FCI Federal Council will be able to re-evaluate this rule and repeal it. For our part, we will strive to ensure that this can be taken into account by the current administration.
Meanwhile, we keep the desire to run within us and we can't wait to attack the next issue .. See you soon! "
