Italian cyclist Nicola Conci, one of the riders affected by the UCI measure to withdraw Gazprom-Rusvelo’s license due to the war in Ukraine, already has a new team. Conci will race the rest of the season in the Alpecin-Fenix development team, according to the Dutch medium WielerFlits pending the official announcement by Van der Poel.
The news jumped after it appeared a photo of Conci with former world champion Maurizio Fondriest and Alpecin-Fenix director Christop Roodhooft next to one of the team’s bikesso in this way his arrival at the Belgian squad was confirmed.
Conci, 25, who spent five seasons at Trek-Segafredo before joining Gazprom-Rusvelo last January, is the first cyclist to leave the Russian structure following the suspension of his license. Since then, and like other teammates such as Matteo Malucelli, Conci has continued to compete in races wearing the colors of the Italian national team, achieving good results such as the tenth position overall in the Settimana Coppi e Bartali and sixth position overall in the Giro di Sicilia. We will have to wait to see if Conci’s case sets a precedent and how it affects other Gazprom-Rusvelo team riders such as the Spanish José Manuel Díaz, who is still waiting for the UCI to make a decision to know if he can compete again or not with the team.