Lucca cycling continues to be talked about abroad. And it does so once again in the women’s sector. And, in fact, more excellent news is arriving in these hours for Ukrainian-Lucca cycling (we could define it that way, given that a large colony of that nation is now Lucca by adoption). This time it is a national title won, obviously, outside our borders.
In fact, one of the most promising athletes of Pro Cycling-Fanini, Alina Bogdan, became national champion in the Under 23 category in Ukraine, in the time trial. The young athlete (she will turn 22 in October), representative of Manuel Fanini’s Lucca club, won the title in the time trial beating her compatriots Arina Korotieva and Anna Kolyzhuk.
But there is more, since Bogdan herself climbed onto the podium, albeit in third place, also in the road race, again in the Under 23 category. A bronze, this, of enormous value, if you think about the difficulties that she and her colleagues (by the way, Elisabetta Golod came first, Darina Naguljak second) are encountering in these years, due to the ongoing war. Enormous hardships, dictated by the worry and fears for their families, by the need to always train abroad, if you don’t want to pedal in your homeland with the echo of the bombs.
Among other things, the competitions took place in Zvenyhorod, a suburb located in Ukrainian territory, on the outskirts of the sadly more famous Lviv, where several battles took place and where the horrors of the conflict are experienced first-hand every day.
“Hats off to Alina’s performances – underlined the general manager Manuel Fanini –. The girl deserves only applause and thanks. She is an athlete who has great potential to grow further and enter the high spheres of world cycling. Unfortunately, what is happening in her country is delaying this whole process, because, even if she often has the opportunity to train far from the bombs, like when she comes to our retreat in Tuscany, it is also true that her head is always there, in a territory tormented by the conflict where her closest family still live”.
“We – added Manuel Fanini – will do everything to support it, in the hope that relative normality will soon return and peace will be found”.
The Ukrainian athletes, young and promising from a sporting point of view, have already highlighted themselves in the Italian races held so far and will certainly do so in future ones as well.
Max Stefanini
