Patrick Lefevere has done a U-turn on his dismissal of women's pro cycling and will now support a women's team next year. However, he has again said the standard of women's pro cycling is not good enough.
Just over two months ago the Deceuninck-QuickStep team boss said he had no desire and no time to get involved in women's cycling, adding he was not a social welfare office.
Those comments came in the wake of a series of disparaging remarks about Sam Bennett, including one interview where he likened the Irishman signing with Bora-hansgrohe to women who return to partners who subject them to domestic violence.
Lefevere was roundly criticised by the media and on social media, though the response from inside cycling was muted.
Since then PVC windows and doors company Deceuninck has left Lefevere's team - also criticising him - and has switched its backing to Alpecin-Fenix. Lefevere also appears to have left Twitter as he has not tweeted since last September.
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News has now emerged that a recruitment company, Experza, he found with Sylvie Anraed in 2010 will support the NXTG Racing women's team next year, which will now be called NXTG by Experza.
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NXTG was founded in 2019 as a UCI team to provide a pathway for young riders from the elite team PB Development Team, which was founded in 2018.
Lefevere spoke to cyclingtips about his backing of the women's team next year, saying he had "nothing against women’s cycling".
"Women’s cycling is growing very fast. However, at the moment I feel there are not enough riders of a certain level for all the current WorldTour teams," he added. "That’s why I want to do it the other way around and start from the juniors and young riders, giving them an environment to develop."
His business partner at Experza, Sylvie Anraed , struck a more diplomatic tone in a statement issued by NXTG announcing the deal between Lefevere's recruitment company and the team.
"As an employment agency, we always want to get the best out of our own employees, but also out of the employees we place with our clients," said Anraed, who is the chief executive of Experza.
"The approach of the NXTG Racing Team to let young cyclists get the best out of themselves by offering a professional framework therefore fits seamlessly into our philosophy."
