Tashkent City Women have responded to criticism after several of their riders got dropped and abandoned during the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes, stating that their presence here alone is a “victory” for cycling.
While the Uzbek team made history as the first central Asian team to start a Tour de France, men’s or women’s, their debut was overshadowed by a dismal display in the Netherlands heat, with more than half their team not being able to live with the WorldTour peloton’s pace on stage 1 into The Hague and leaving the race.
“First stage, the team are not feeling really good because we lost four riders but it’s a mono-nation team and our first time in Tour de France so we are in the middle I will say,” Director Sportiff Volodymyr Starchyk told Cyclingnews after the stage.
“For a mono-nation with not many women’s riders in the country, to be present in the Tour de France Femmes is something big in my opinion. To be ready for big results, they need time.”
Tashkent received a lot of criticism on social media both when it was announced that they had secured a spot at every women’s WorldTour race, including the Tour de France, by finishing ranked in the top 18 for women’s teams. During the opening stage in the Netherlands, their riders continued to abandon as the kilometres ticked by.
The first came inside the opening 40km of racing, Ekaterina Knebeleva, with 19-year-old Asal Rizaeva and 18-year-old Mohinabonu Elmurodova following suit not long after. Finally, Madina Kakhorova was the fourth rider not making it through.
Starchyk swerved the question when asked whether the team knew the teenagers specifically wouldn’t be able to follow the pace and whether this was the best idea, choosing to respond matter of factly that, “It’s not easy to finish when you are 19 years old”.
Only one of their riders managed to finish in the main group - talented 22-year-old Yanina Kuskova, who is the three-time Uzbek national champion. But Starchyk wasn’t phased, simply choosing to focus on how much of a success it was for them to even be on the start line.
“People can think everything they want. Everybody is able to think about what they want but we are here, it’s something big for the nation,” said Starchyk.
“The first time in history an Uzbek team with all Uzbek riders so I think also for cycling it’s a victory because a country completely outside of races in Europe, an Asian team coming here to Tour de France, it’s never happened in history.
“So it’s sad for results because we lose some riders today but at the same time, Tour de France Femmez avec Zwift shows people that cycling is open for the whole world.”
It’s the races outside of Europe that were contentious for Tashkent, as reported by Cyclingnews in November, where European teams raised eyebrows at the points scoring mainly at smaller one-day races, continental championships and national championships.
But it perhaps shows a potential issue with the UCI points scoring system more than anything with Tashkent specifically, however, Starchyk did confirm it wasn’t an illness that left four of their seven reeling but “for sure the legs and for sure speed”.
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