After the last meeting it had, the Managing Board of the Cyprus Cycling Federation announced that it will be honoring Konstantinos Pavlides of Omonoia Cycling and Stavros Theophanous of ELITE Cycling with an “Ethics award” for their actions during the last Mountain Bike race of 2020 in Politiko.
During the initial stages of the race, while the two Junior riders were riding at second and third place and chasing hard. Their competitor Christos Philokyprou who was leading, had a nasty fall in a fast and rocky section of the course. Thankfully, the crash only resulted in cuts and bruises, but at the moment the situation seemed grave. Philokyprou was in agony, having trouble breathing and screaming in pain. The two athletes immediately abandoned the race and made every effort possible to help the injured rider. They run to the nearest marshal to inform him of the crash and stayed at the scene until the rescue personnel and the ambulance arrived.
When the announcement for the award was made, we reached to both athletes for their thoughts. Their quotes show that their actions on the day, must not come as a surprise.
“…seeing him falling off his bike like that, in a tough trail full of sharp rocks and boulders, I knew that he was hurt. For both of us, at that moment, the health of our fellow athlete was the only thing that mattered. There was no point in going for the win if that meant that I would abandon an injured rider…” said Stavros Theophanous about the incident.
Konstantinos added: "During the races we are fierce competitors, giving it all against each other. But when we take off the number plate from the bike, we are good friends. We train together all the time, so we spend many hours with each other. When I saw him go down that hard, it was impossible to continue. Our only concern was to warn the race officials about the crash and get him help as fast as possible…”
They both thanked the Cyprus Cycling Federation for its decision and feel very honored for the recognition they received. At the same time, they feel that it sends the correct fair-play messages to younger riders and it's very beneficial for the sport.
The Cyprus Cycling Federation will organize a ceremony to honor the two athletes as soon as the epidemiological conditions allow it.
After everything was said, we informed Stavros of one more aspect of the incident: Had he not stopped, he most probably would have managed to place himself third in the MTB National Cup overall - instead of fourth...
“There was only one choice for me and that was to stop and help. No win or award is worth anything under those circumstances. If in the future I find myself in the same situation, my reaction will be the same”
