The Spanish cyclist José Manuel Díaz smiles again after spending the last three months without competing after the UCI left the Russian team Gazprom-Rusvelo out of the races as a result of the war in Ukraine. The Burgos-BH team announced this Friday the signing of Díaz, 27, who will race for the first time as a professional in a Spanish team.
Díaz arrives at Burgos-BH after passing through the ranks of the Israel Cycling Academy, Vorarlberg and the Delko, where he achieved his greatest successes with a stage victory in the 2020 Tour of Rwanda and a stage and overall victory in the 2021 Tour of Turkey. This year Díaz signed with the Gazprom-Rusvelo team to continue growing in the peloton. Nevertheless the war in Ukraine and the ban on competing for the Russian team This has caused the cyclist from Jaén to have only been able to run this year in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and in the Vuelta a Andalucía, before the war began.
In statements collected by Burgos-BH, Díaz assures that despite not being able to compete, he has not stopped training and that he maintains the illusion of continuing to grow intact. “I have never lost hope and I have continued training with the hope of returning to compete as soon as possible. I am very happy to have received the opportunity to ride with Burgos-BH. It is a team in which I know everyone, and that is important to enter mid-season. Also, I think they have an exceptional schedule that few teams can provide. I hope to win a race and be a protagonist in La Vuelta”.