Nazir Jaser pulls to a standstill outside the registration building at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway. He rests his time trial bike against a nearby wall and delicately checks over his Syrian national skinsuit, gently ironing out any creases with his hands before making his way into the auditorium where he must register.
It’s unusual for a rider to arrive like this. Most athletes here at the World Championships won’t see the city centre until they’re either competing or on a reconnaissance ride but Jaser is here to pick up his own race number. There are no WorldTour buses, carers, nor a plethora of support staff here. Not for Jaser, anyway.
Jaser, 28, is one of three Syrians racing in the World Championships, and on Wednesday he and compatriot Ahmad Badreddin will roll down the start ramp and pit their strength and wits against the Chris Froomes and Tom Dumoulins of this world. Twenty-four hours earlier a young 17-year-old, Mohamed Rayes lines up in the junior equivalent.
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The triumvirate of athletes are in Bergen with the national coach, and Mohamed’s father, Amin, but their extraordinary story does not begin here in Norway. It starts with a cycling federation fighting to survive through a bloody civil war; it continues with Jaser and his fellow cyclists fleeing for their lives and scattering through western Europe; and it carries through with the three of them arriving in Norway to compete in one of cycling’s showcase events.
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A day before picking up his race number, Jaser is standing outside the hotel in Bergen that he has called home for the last few days. He scans the crowds, searching for a face he should recognise but can’t quite draw on.
Finally, Badreddin appears. It’s a reunion the pair never thought possible. The pair grew up together in war-torn Aleppo, and raced as part of the Syrian national team, but the once-teammates were forced to flee their homes when the war escalated and, until their meeting outside their hotel in Bergen, they had not seen each other for almost four years.
“I’ve known him since we lived in Aleppo. In 2015 he moved because the city was just broken and he couldn’t stay there any more and he moved to Berlin. It’s been four years and yesterday we saw each other for the first time since,” a jubilant Badreddin tells us as he stands with Jaser outside the race registration building.
“I was in Syria then and we were on the same team then. We were in the same club and we had a lot of races together back then as part of the national team. We went to lots of races together,” he says, smiling at Naser, who is still checking over his skinsuit to make sure it remains immaculate.
When the war broke out in Syria cycling was one of the last things on people's minds. The federation infrastructure suffered, the outdoor track that riders had used for training was repeatedly bombed, and survival became the only necessity.
Jaser fled to Berlin, Badreddin to Switzerland, and the pair remained apart. They kept in contact via email, and Badreddin found a cycling club and even raced in Spain in 2016. Jaser, who has picked up German but doesn’t have the best English, settled in Berlin and made use of an excellent support system there that helps to look after Syrian riders. Both riders still have family in Syria – in Aleppo in fact – but over the last two years both have been able to rebuild their lives. In a period of great uncertainty, risks, loss and upheaval, it’s cycling that has kept them together.
“In 2012 I thought that cycling was finished for me,” Badreddin says. “The war at home made it really hard to carry on. I was just looking to my future but after being in Switzerland for eight months I met some people who were into riding and I started to slowly train and get back into it. Two years after that I came back.
“After about a year of being in Switzerland he wrote to me and said we should meet again but yesterday was the first time it was possible. It’s great to see him again. Cycling has brought us together. It was a fantastic time when we were able to try and race together and now he’s 28 and I’m 26 and we’re again together.
“We arranged to meet up at the hotel where we are staying and when I turned up he was waiting for me in the street. It was fantastic. I couldn’t believe it.”
Badreddin turns to Jaser, helping to translate as Jaser tells us about the family he still has in Aleppo, about his last outing at the Worlds in 2013, and how this skinsuit has accompanied him from Florence, to Syria, to Berlin and now to Norway.
“I asked where he got the skinsuit,” Badreddin says. “He was in the Worlds in Toscana and he’s kept the kit for a long time. It reminded him that he was once in the World Championships and he’s kept this this whole time.”
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