Controversy following the online test of National Championships 2023 in Albania. Upon arrival of the test held on Sunday 18 June the winner was Lukas Sulaj Kloppenburgwhich preceded Olsian Velia And Ylber Sefa. The latter thus saw the series of successes that had lasted since 2017 interrupted. Sefa, however, immediately pointed out that, from her point of view, there was something that just wasn’t right in the running of the race. According to the standard bearer of the Belgian amateur team Vetrapo B-CloseIn fact, several runners would have benefited from unsportsmanlike advantages, with the approval of the organizers.
Sefa, who had dominated the time trial the day before, giving 3’19” to the second classified, said “There was a lap and a half to go until the end of the road race and I had more than a minute ahead of the others – the words collected by Wielerverhaal – There were long straights and I could see clearly that there was no one behind me. I kept my pace anyway, but suddenly I found some runners close behind. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it wasn’t possible. Apparently they attached themselves to an organization car and so they came back under me.”
Sefa’s wife describes what would have happened, Carolien Vandemoortele, present on the route: “I was in a support vehicle and behind me I saw some runners attached to another car. There was a commissioner with us, who saw everything, but who could not say anything because he was not on duty in this race. Furthermore, in the group that returned to Ylber there was also a rider who in second (of 6 expected – ed) passage on the climb that was in the route was already planted. Some people told me that they saw him hiding in the woods and, suddenly, he reappeared leading the race and even finished in second place. Strangely, his data has disappeared from Strava…”.
And that’s not all, because the organization apparently decided to remove the last lap just a couple of kilometers before the penultimate passage under the finish line banner: “At that point Ylber had decided that he would attack on the last uphill passage, but he couldn’t do it, since they let the race end early.” Sefa adds: “At that moment I no longer wanted to sprint. From what we understood, cyclists from the Tirana team had to win. We have already filed a complaint withInternational Cycling Union“.
Sefa has lived in Belgium, in Oudenaarde, for some time and has long had a conflictual relationship with his federation: “Go racing in Europe and score UCI points for Albania, they told me. But don’t run here anymore. For me it was an honor to return to my country every year for the National Championships and it’s not my fault if they don’t invest in young people to make them become better runners. Just a few weeks ago they prevented me and my team from participating in the Tour of Albania 2023. Incomprehensible”.
