The case of the fabricated national championships
Another Uzbek attempt to boost UCI points + international national champs breakdown
Uzbekistan have dropped from 34th to 50th in the UCI Nations rankings after it was found that the Central Asian nation gained points for a national championships that never happened.
In May, Uzbekistan held four UCI 1.2 races over the space of a week. On one of the rest days between the races, Uzbekistan held their national championships, further boosting their UCI points number.
The thing is, the national championships race never happened.
It appears that the Uzbekistan National Federation decided to submit results to the UCI anyway for the national championships.
Last week, the UCI found out that the race never happened and removed the points gained.
When I spoke to a rider from the Uzbek national team, he firmly denied these reports, saying: “I can assure you that this is not true, all the results are true and accurate.”
Read more: Tashkent on Tour - The Uzbek team at the Tour de France Femmes 2024
However, multiple other reports from other teams competing in the 1.2 races disagree, stating that no race occurred on that date.
When asked why he thought they had been deducted points, the rider said: “honestly I don’t know why we have taken off points, I think it’s a conflict between my federation and the UCI.”
The Uzbekistan National Federation have not yet responded to a request for comment.
If you’ve been reading these posts for a while, you’ll remember a few weeks ago that I mentioned a sudden rise up the rankings for Uzbekistan after the series of one day races in May.
It’s a particularly important time for nations like Uzbekistan to secure points as they look to qualify a place at the World Championships and also the Olympic Games for next year.
The points-haul was particularly controversial as the Uzbeks were accused of cheating during the Tour of Oqtosh - Chorvoq - Mountain 1. Winner Ulugbek Saidov and third place Bezhodbek Rakhmibaev reportedly secured their results by holding on to their coach’s motorbike. Saidov won the 10 kilometre uphill time-trial by 2 minutes and 39 seconds.
Last week when I checked the rankings again, I noticed that Uzbekistan had dropped considerably from their comfortable top-35 placing all the way down to 50th.
I assumed that the UCI had taken action on the alleged actions from the Tour of Oqtosh, but they haven’t.
They now sit in 50th place on the UCI Nations rankings and have qualified one place for the men’s World road race.
The Uzbeks could still hold a genuine national championships later in the year, with the points contributing to their goal of reaching the Olympic Games.
National Champs week
National Champs is always a fun week, it’s nice to have something different just before the craziness of Le Tour.
It’s also a great week to identify new talent from around the world.
Awet Aman (ERI) and Bizay Tesfu Redae (ETH) were two that stood out for me. Both 20-years-old, they overcame the challenges of their nations’ professional riders to claim Eritrea and Ethiopia’s road race titles. Neither have been granted much opportunity in recent time for different reasons, that should be about to change.
Japan’s men took on a challenging course with 4762 meters of climbing over 161 kilometres. No surprise then that the nation’s best climber, Masaki Yamamoto of JCL Team UKYO, won solo. Human Powered Health’s Eri Yonamine won the women’s race by more than seven minutes.
Benin held their first ever UCI sanctioned national championships, a great innovation by the federation with support from our friends at Team Africa Rising. Emmanuel Sagbo won the men’s road race and Hermione Ahouissou won the women’s. Look out for Melvina Tankpinou who won both women’s junior races. She has recently spent time in South Africa with the World Cycling Centre and is one to watch.
Here are a selection of national champions from around the world:
Algeria Men’s RR: Abdelraouf Bengayou // Women’s RR: Yasmine Elmeddah
Bermuda Men’s RR: Kaden Hopkins // Women’s RR: Caitlin Conyers
Brazil Men’s RR: Caio Godoy // Women’s RR: Ana Vitória Magalhães
Burkina Faso Men’s RR: Paul Daumont // Women’s RR:
China Men’s RR: Binyan Ma // Women’s RR: Luyao Zeng
Costa Rica Men’s RR: Jason Huertas // Women’s RR: Dixiana Quesada
Eritrea Men’s RR: Awet Aman // Women’s RR: Ksanet Ghebremeskel
Ethiopia Men’s RR: Bizay Tesfu Redae // Women’s RR: Trhas Tekleimanot
Israel Men’s RR: Itamar Einhorn // Women’s RR: Antonina Reznikov
Mauritius Men’s RR: Christopher Rougier-Lagane
Mongolia Men’s RR: Jambaljamts Sainbayar // Women’s RR: Anujin Jinjiibadam
Paraguay Men’s RR: Francisco Riveros // Women’s RR: Agua Marina Espínola
Turkey Men’s RR: Burak Abay // Women’s RR: Azize Bekar
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