Bradley Wiggins has responded to Patrick Lefevere boss Deceuninck-QuickStep calling Remco Evenepoel “too fat” by branding it inappropriate.
Wiggins said while he did not know all the details behind the comments, he believed it was wrong to speak about a young rider that way.
And he also believed because the comments were about weight, it was even more inappropriate.
Lefevere told a Belgian newspaper that he had seen how disappointed Evenepoel was with his climbing performance at the UAE Tour.
“I will tell you something, Remco is too fat,” the old-school Belgian cycling boss said. "He was disappointed (at UAE Tour). He does not say so, but I saw him sitting on a bench. And I have been in the business long enough to know that I should leave him alone.”
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Lefevere believed his 19-year-old rider was about 4 kilograms too heavy, adding he was working hard at getting that down. However, Evenepoel is in his first year out of the juniors and has already taken some very impressive results.
He was 3nd on the TT at Vuelta a San Juan, claiming 9th overall and won the young rider classification. And while be crashed out of UAE Tour on stage 4, he climbed well on the summit finish the previous day.
While disappointed with his result, he claimed 15th on the uphill finish and was ahead of many top climbers.
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“Patrick tends to make big bold statements in order to put somebody in their place,” Wiggins said.
“One reason (for the comments) may be that he (Evenepoel) has come into the team and he thinks he’s it and maybe they just want to take him down a peg?
“Sometimes Patrick’s behaviour doesn’t add up. And I think the fact that he’s said this publicly; now we’re here talking about it; that’s not great for a young 19-year-old kid.
“It’s not the best man management, is it? The Belgian press will get hold of this and you have to think of his parents; have they made the right decision?
“We’re only in March and maybe should he have stayed amateur, should he have gone to this team?”
Wiggins added calling out riders in public was “an old school tactic going back to Brian Clough in football”.
But in cycling if riders tried to lose too much weight too quickly and under the wrong conditions, it could cause serious problems, eating disorders included.
Bradley Wiggins believed Remco Evenepoel was still “a boy” and needed more time to develop.
Wiggins on Lefevere's Evenepoel weight comments
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