Jacopo Guarnieri clearly expressed his intentions with the wristband he wore during a pre-race presentation last Wednesday evening in Heroes' Square. But it was only after the Giro d'Italia left Hungary and arrived in Sicily on Monday that he was able to verbalize his message of solidarity for trans rights.

"It was like a silent, but not silent, message," Guarnieri told reporters on his rest day.

In 2020, Viktor Orban's far-right government passed a law making it impossible for transgender and intersex people to legally change their gender. Last year, the Hungarian parliament voted 157-1 to ban the sharing of content depicting people as gay or transgender with minors. However, despite the passage of these homophobic and transphobic laws, RCS Sport held up its end of the deal to sell Orbán's 2022 Giro start to Hungary.

Guarnieri, like many others, had strong concerns about the Giro's trip to Hungary, but at least he could use his platform to raise international awareness of the country's transphobic laws and provide a message of solidarity to the transgender community I soon realized that.

The Italian's social media biography had long featured a rainbow flag as a symbol of LGBT+ allyship, and he had initially planned to wear a rainbow wristband in Budapest. After consulting with friends, I decided to wear a light blue, pink, and white transgender flag, inspired by the transgender flags worn by American athletes at the World Cyclocross Championships to protest Arkansas' anti-transgender laws. [As you all know, Hungary approved this law in mid-2021. I already talked about it with [Hungarian teammate] Attila Walther in December, and he told me about the situation in the country. Guarnieri called reporters on Monday's rest day and said, "It's been my idea for a long time."

"I didn't know what kind of support I would need, but when I saw the bracelet, I decided to wear it during my presentation on stage.

Guarnieri's gesture echoed those of other soccer players, including Harry Kane and Georginio Wynaldum, who wore rainbow armbands when they played international matches in Hungary last year. It was not entirely without risk. For example, his Groupama-FDJ team decided not to allow Giro reporters to talk about Guarnieri's protest until after the race had left Hungarian soil.

"We are not superheroes, but you wouldn't think we could say that much in public to a foreigner," Guarnieri said. We're not superheroes, but you wouldn't think we could say that much in public to foreigners," Guarnieri said.

"I thought maybe I would offend someone, but I was thinking more about the public than the politicians. In the time trial, I thought someone might try to punch me. But I thought about that and I thought, 'I can take a punch.' So I said, 'OK, why not? After all, it's Europe, so let's do it. I had the confidence to get the message across without taking any risks."

A photo of Guarnieri holding up his wristband at a pre-race presentation drew widespread praise on social media for the Castelvetro native, who hails from between Cremona and Piacenza, to which Guarnieri responded by tweeting: "Apparently love (and respect), it seems that if you share it, you get love." But at the race and in the peloton, his gesture was greeted with silence.

"I was actually a little afraid, but when I did it, I got a lot of support [on social media]. Guarnieri said.

"I haven't heard anything about the riders or the organization, good or bad. I didn't notice any significant change in their attitude toward me, good or bad. It's the same as before. "

While athletes in other sports are increasingly active in using their platforms to promote social causes, cycling appears to be bound by the belief that sport and politics should not mix. For example, at the 2020 Tour de France, support for the "Black Lives Matter" movement was slow to take off, despite the fact that athletes around the world were on their knees in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.

Guarnieri is one of the few notable exceptions. Cyclists and citizens are not mutually exclusive. He can lead the Arnaud Demaret sprint and analyze it lucidly, or he can express strong opposition to the far-right politics of Matteo Salvini, Giorgia Meroni, and Marine Le Pen. ("Nationalist sentiment and this kind of bullshit is definitely on the rise," he notes.) He warned against the idea that the general reticence of the professional peloton on social issues is necessarily a sign of conservatism.

"There are many reasons for cycling. Sure, some just don't want to say something, some don't think anything of it, some may disagree. You can't have one explanation," Guarnieri said.

"I am made this way. I'm not an expert on international policy or anything. For example, I don't have a solution for what Hungary can do for transsexual people. But I can share my support and share a positive atmosphere. That is who I am and it is very simple."

Simple far outweighs many things, including the management of this race, which RCS Sport's managing director, Paolo Bellino, a former international hurdler, skipped last week in response to a question about Hungary's transphobia law. In a telephone conference with international media, Bellino said, "I am not going to get into the political situation or any other situation."

If this muffled response was the equivalent of Bellino tripping over a hurdle with his back foot, the spokesperson who interrupted him with a follow-up question ensured he stumbled flat on his face. Not for the first time in professional cycling, he seems reluctant to say or do anything that might offend the powerful men who hold the purse strings.

Asked if the Giro d'Italia should have started in Hungary, Guarnieri offered a balanced view, pointing out that the Grande Partenza was originally planned for 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In some respects, I think we were right to honor the contract, and on the other hand, I can say that we might not have," Guarnieri said. He knows that besides the Giro's trip to Hungary, the issue of sportswashing is a persistent problem for cycling. The sport repeatedly holds races in countries with human rights problems in exchange for large amounts of cash. He said, "It's a difficult balance between fighting for what you think is right and trying to survive in what you do.

There are many in cycling who could learn from the balance Guarnieri has struck.