Vatican sends holy rouleur Down Under on world road cycling mission

When Rien Schuurhuis rolls out for the men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, he will bring a novel and some might even say holy presence to the most-significant one-day race on the global cycling calendar.

Schuurhuis will cut a lonely figure in a peloton of almost 200 cyclists, from a few dozen nations, but for the first-time in cycling history the Vatican City will be racing for the sacred rainbow jersey.

Last year, the Vatican – the small independent city-state in Rome, Italy governed by the Catholic Church – joined cycling’s global body, the UCI. The move came following the establishment of Athletica Vaticana in 2018 to pursue sporting opportunities for Vatican employees, citizens and their family members. The initiative has support from the top, with Pope Francis officially endorsing the team.

Schuurhuis, 40, is a Dutch-Australian who moved to the Vatican two years ago with his wife, Australia’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro. He has previously ridden for semi-professional teams across Asia, including a year with Australian outfit Oliver’s Real Food. His best results include several top 10 stage finishes at races in Indonesia and Malaysia; he finished 40th in the individual time trial at last year’s Dutch national championships.

“It’s very special and I am very honoured that I was the chosen one for this event,” Schuurhuis told Guardian Australia on Friday. “But we really do this as a team – there are three representatives with me here, and I’m just doing the riding. Everything around it is done by the whole team. We’re very proud.”

One of Schuurhuis’s colleagues on his trip to Australia, Valerio Agnoli, Vatican Cycling’s external relationship manager, is a former pro who rode for