A cycling team in the Vatican is a reality. The Vatican Cycling Team is born, a subsidiary of Vatican Athletics, recognized by the World Athletics and the international taekwondo federation, with the aim of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics .

Valerio Piccioni writes in the Gazzetta dello sport that the team should have 200 members, "including priests, nuns and staff who work in the territory of the Holy See". Among them is Bishop Attilio Nostro, who is studying the cause of beatification of Gino Bartali .

“The relationship between the Vatican and cycling - says Piccioni - is long-standing. If the use of bicycles by priests had initially been discouraged by the Papacy until the beginning of the last century, just together with the consolidation of the myth of the Giro d'Italia, things changed. Just think of 1950, of Gino Bartali and Hugo Koblet , the Catholic and the Protestant, who kneel before Pius XII . Or in 1974, when it was Paul VI 's turn to start the race with the patron of the race, Vincenzo Torriani . Or again for the Jubilee of 2000, with the audience of John Paul II with the protagonists of the Giro at the start ”. It is no mystery, in fact, that Pope Francis is a great sports fan and in addition to cheering on the San Lorenzo de Almagro football team in Argentina, he has received many professional athletes in the past, including cyclists Bernal and Sagan . Who knows if now the Holy Father will also try his hand at Fantacycling.

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