For the Tashkent Metropolis Ladies’s Professional Biking Group, simply attending to the beginning line of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was already a win. The event group from Uzbekistan obtained an invite to be one of many 22 groups competing on the world’s greatest girls’s race after ending nineteenth within the Worldwide Biking Union rating on the finish of 2023 and netting a wildcard spot for the Tour.
Nevertheless, their entry didn’t come with out controversy. Different groups on the Ladies’s Continental degree questioned the legitimacy of Tashkent’s UCI factors, lots of which had been accrued in lesser-known occasions removed from the principle racing circuits. The UCI took be aware of those considerations and revised the factors accordingly. Nonetheless, due to the folding of the longstanding TIBCO-SVB group, the merging of Liv Racing TeqFind and Jayco-AlUla groups, and Tashkent’s point-gathering endeavours, the group discovered itself in Rotterdam on August twelfth — their barely branded campervan hiding within the shadows of the gleaming group buses and fleet of assist automobiles of the Ladies’s WorldTour elite.
What had the potential of maybe turning into a scrappy underdog story rapidly was certainly one of critique. The seven Uzbek riders smiled by the pre-race fanfare and festive begin, however the actuality of the race quickly set in. Solely three riders would attain the end on day 1, with some riders by no means even making it to the midway mark earlier than abandoning. The tempo and calls for had been just too excessive at this degree of racing. And by the top of day three, just one Tashkent rider was left standing.
Tashkent Metropolis Ladies had delivered equally dismal performances on the Strade Bianche and Giro d’Italia Donne earlier within the season, and critique got here quick and sharp. The group campervan now attracts loads of media consideration, however all for the fallacious causes. Tashkent is woefully unprepared for this degree of competitors, and lots of argued that the chance ought to have gone to a extra skilled group.
Group director Gleb Groysman was a bit stunned by the tough criticism, not as a result of there wasn’t any fact in it however as a result of lots of his riders had been dropped at tears. He careworn that his group, younger and working on a shoestring price range, was created to develop and promote biking expertise in Uzbekistan and to realize expertise on the worldwide stage. The riders weren’t prepared for racing at this degree, he will not deny it, however now that they’re right here, his sole remaining rider isn’t giving up and neither is he.
Yanina Kuskova is one of the best expertise to emerge from Uzbekistan’s new funding in sports activities. At 22, she’s already a three-time Uzbek nationwide champion and has held her personal the place her teammates couldn’t.
She rode within the Olympic Video games, the place she completed 51st. She additionally completed the 2024 Giro d’Italia Donne in eighty fifth place, briefly held the Younger Rider’s jersey on the UAE Tour in 2023, and has ridden in two world street race championships (2021 and 2022). After stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes, Kuskova is sitting in 76th place out of 134 riders remaining. Ending mid-pack, whenever you’re flying utterly solo, cannot be a straightforward feat, so I sought her out for a chat.
Talking with the interpretation assist of group director Groysman, Kuskova mentioned she’s pissed off that her teammates have deserted her, leaving her to fend for herself on the world’s greatest stage.
Whereas lots of the riders are travelling on with the group, using the levels forward of the particular race for coaching, it is onerous to be alone within the peloton all day.
“I attempt to observe the sturdy riders contained in the peloton and attempt to get a very good place within the entrance but it surely’s not simple,’ she commented.
Reasonably than using simply to outlive, Kuskova mentioned her aim for the rest of the tour is to attempt to end with the entrance group every day, particularly on a hilly stage, which she prefers.
“I am assured I can end the Tour de France,” she mentioned. “I want to present to everybody that riders from the Uzebkistan group can end this sturdy race and present on the earth that Uzbekistan cycles too.”
One look on the group’s outcomes on the Tour in addition to the previous season is sufficient to affirm that Tashkent Metropolis Ladies’s Professional Biking Group is in over its head on the WorldTour. However they’re right here now and Kuskova has been left to soldier on alone. I am unable to assist however really feel for her and admire her resilience and willpower to make one of the best of the unlucky scenario she’s discovered herself in. It takes actual bravery to press on and go it alone, particularly with such a frightening problem forward and when everybody says you don’t belong.
Because the Tour strikes towards its most difficult days but, I’ll be keeping track of her, rooting for her with the hope that her identify stays on that record of finishers. Hers is a narrative not about successful however about exhibiting the world that coronary heart and grit can carry you thru, even when the percentages are stacked towards you. In Kuskova, Tashkent Metropolis Ladies could get its underdog story in spite of everything.
