Pavel Sivakov, 26 years old from the INEOS Grenadiers team, had to face a great disappointment as he was not included in the upcoming edition of the Vuelta a España. The cyclist had hoped to be selected to participate in the last Grand Tour of the season, but he was left out of the list of competitors. In an interview with L’Équipe, Sivakov expressed deep disappointment with this situation, considering it a serious blow to his career.
The Franco-Russian climber had impeccable preparation for the Vuelta, but without success. “When I heard about it, I had a lot of difficulty. This summer I spent a month and a half at altitude and trained, including three weeks with the cyclists who will be competing in the Vuelta. Then I did the Tour de Pologne and it also went very well. Then I went back to altitude, with a view to the Vuelta.”
“Sometimes we are just numbers, pawns. This once again shows that people within a team also need to make difficult decisions,” Sivakov said.
Sivakov is not the only athlete from INEOS Grenadiers who is disappointed with not being selected for the Vuelta. Luke Rowe is in the same boat. “Honestly, I’m fed up with it. When they call you, your first reaction is: Damn… And a bit of anger. For the last four months, I’ve been working just towards this. All the signs were pointing in the right direction. Maybe I’ve been naive, maybe I thought I was closer to it than I actually was,” he said on the Watts Occurring podcast, co-hosted by him and Geraint Thomas.
