Saved thanks to cycling: this young Ukrainian tells how he was able to join UC Monaco
Maksym Bilyi has a dream, that of becoming a professional runner. At 21, this climber takes the path. Champion of Ukraine under 23, he caught the eye of the Monegasque leaders last season – in particular his compatriot and sporting director Roman Luhovyy – who then recruited him for the 2022 season.
The young rider arrived in the Principality at the start of the year for a first stage. On February 3, Maksym has to go back to kyiv to pick up his passport at the French Embassy. A three-day express trip. The young man leaves with a simple backpack. “He was due to return on February 6 and was due to start his season on the 11th”explains Guido Possetto, son sports director in Monaco.
But nothing will go as planned. The document is slow to arrive, so the runner waits with his aunt who lives 15 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital. It ends up arriving on February 24. Or the very day the war begins.
“There was panic in the city, everything was blocked, there was no more transport. I walked 30 kilometers round trip to collect the visa”, said the cyclist, who agreed to return to his route on Friday morning, near the port of Nice. But his document is no longer worth anything because the next day Volodymyr Zelensky calls for “general mobilization”. All men between the ages of 18 and 60 must defend the country. The beginning of the horror begins.
“Every day, we heard very strong shelling, the house was shaking. We were always dressed, ready to leave. It became too dangerous”, details the champion, in Italian, he who ran his last two seasons on the other side of the Alps. “With my aunt and my 11-year-old cousin, we set off on foot to escape. On an 8-9km market, in the middle of destroyed houses and soldiers”.
Their path then separates. “My aunt took a train to the Polish border and I went home to Mykolaiv (city of 475,000 inhabitants in the south). I left by train and my father-in-law made part of the trip to pick me up by car. As we were under curfew, I called a cyclist who put us up for the night.”
But in Mykolaiv, the situation is also degenerating. The family then decides to leave their city and their homeland. “We left at 7 by car, with my mother, my little brother and my little sister, in the direction of Odessa. Between the checkpoints and the cut roads, we took 5 hours to cover 120km. We then took a crowded train. There was panic, jostling, people abandoning their suitcases. For a day and a half, we remained standing, piled up until Lviv”.
But here is the runner reassured. His mother and younger brother and sister were able to cross the border and are welcomed by a family friend in Poland. He cannot leave the country. So he finds his old cycling team which is training in Lviv, where there is a velodrome. The situation gets bogged down and Maksym thinks of joining the Ukrainian army. “I wanted to go there, I was very close, but my parents said to me every day: ‘You have no experience and your war is cycling and showing the colors of Ukraine on big races”.
It is Umberto Langellotti, the president of the Monegasque Cycling Federation, who will finally find a way out for his young rider. “I spoke about his situation to David Lappartient (president of the UCI) 15 days ago, during the congress of the european cycling union, in denmark. He replied that it would have taken the maximum to get Maksym out”.
The UCI, and the UEC, with the help of the IOC, make it possible to contact the Ukrainian government and ask it to create “a list of high-level athletes, who could leave the territory and defend the colors of Ukraine at the international level”. A request quickly accepted. Maksym Bilyi, as the U23 national champion, is one of them and can therefore legally leave the territory. He is also the first member of this list to be able to extract himself. “Even with this paper, I was still worried until he was able to cross the border”explains Umberto Langellotti.
Fortunately, Maksym manages to reach Hungary, where he is supported by the National Cycling Federation, which has established good relations with the Monegasques for a few years.
Last Saturday, the runner finally arrives in Nice and can find his teammates in Roquebrune, where he is staying in an apartment with an Italian and a Hungarian. “His teammates thought about him a lot. They were ready to pick him up at the Hungarian border”says Guido. “We try to put everything in place so that he is in the best conditions. And if we talk about sport, he really has a great level. Besides, yesterday (Thursday), we did a test: 170km behind scooter and it was fine. Maksym was amazed to be so well after this period”.
It must be said that the runner did everything to stay in shape. “During the 16 days I spent in Ukraine, there were only 6 days when I could not train. “we heard the bombs. People thought I was crazy…”
The climber has not yet regained all his physical means. But, as of tomorrow, he will hang a bib for the National Criterium (read above). “He won’t be on his turf (the course is flat around the port of Monaco), he is not at the top, but he wants to resume. It’s important to him.” assures Umberto Langellotti.
Because the runner has a well-anchored wish. “I want to show the Ukrainian flag on the podiums”. To pay homage to his homeland and his relatives back home. Her father, her 6-year-old half-sister and her stepfather, all still in Mykolaiv, in an area that is bombed every day…