Gozitan Joe Bajada re-elected to post in European Cycling Union

by Gozo News · March 9, 2021

Gozitan Joe Bajada has been re-elected to an important position in the European Cycling Union.

During the 2021 virtual Congress of the European Union of Cycling, Joe Bajada, Secretary-General of the Malta Cycling Federation was re-elected to a vital post within this European Union.

Over the next four years, Bajada will form part of 15 delegates who will have the right to vote on behalf of the 50 European affiliated countries, during the Annual General Congress of the International Federation Cycling Championships to be held next September in Belgium.

These 15 will also be identified by another 30 delegates from the other four confederations, which are ACC (Asia), COPACI (Pan America), CAC (Africa), and the OCC (Oceania).

29 delegates were nominated in this election, from different Federations and Associations within the UEC, where 15 had to be elected. Due to changes in the UEC statute, the first four women and men were elected. The other seven candidates with the most votes joined them.

Appointed with Joe Bajada were: Alejandro Martin Garcia (Spain), Umberto Langellotti (Monaco), Lucia Trevisan (Italy), Victoria Lesnikova (Russia), Thierry Marechal (Belgium), Walter Baldiserra (San Marino), Camille Dahm (Luxembourg), Livia Hanesova (Slovakia), Raivo Rand (Estonia), José Luís Costa Mendes Ribeiro (Portugal), Tomislav Zadro (Croatia), Csilla Tam (Hun), Jaroslava Krakovicová (Czech Republic) and Vitali Zhmako (Belarus).

In this Congress, the UEC now has a new President, Italian Enrico Della Casa, who for the last eight years has been the Secretary-General of the same UEC. He was not contested because current Swiss President Rocco Cataneo did not run for office due to his many other commitments, including being a member of the Swiss Parliament.

Other elections during this Congress were for six members of the Executive were Henrik Jess Jensen (Denmark), Delmino Albano Magalhães Pereira (Portugal), Alexander Gusyatnikov (Russia), Dragomir Gusyatnikov (Bulgaria), Katarina Jakubova (Slovenia) were elected here, And Natallia Tsylinskaya (Belarus). The following were elected to the UCI Management Committee: Daniela Isetti (Italy); Agata Lang (Poland); Michel Callot (France); Rocco Cattaneo (Switzerland); Henrik Jess Jensen (Denmark); Toni Kirsch (Germany); Jose Luis Lopez Cerron (Spain); Igor Makarov (Russia) and Petr Marek (Czech Republic).

Joe Bajada welcomed the result and thanked the 37 European countries that had once again shown full confidence in him with their vote so that now together with the other 14 delegates they will represent them during the next UCI Congress.

Commenting on this prestigious result, Joe Bajada said that this is “personal satisfaction and success for the Malta Cycling Federation and Malta and Gozo.”

He added that this result “reflects his hard work above all – it was noticed and continued to be appreciated even on the international scene.”

Bajada dedicated this to his dear mother, Giovanna, who passed away recently, and his whole family for the continuous support they always give him.

He thanked President John Zammit and his colleagues and members of the Malta Cycling Federation, the UEC Officials, particularly new President Enrico Della Casa, and the International Federations that sent him congratulations after this result.