Patrick Lefevere has claimed women's pro cycling was being "artificially" pushed or promoted as the standard across the peloton did not warrant the minimum wage World Tour riders were being paid.
He said during Tour de France Femmes last year the time limit had to be increased because, if it wasn't, half of the riders would have missed the time cut. And he believed it was "not OK" that many female riders were earning a minimum wage, as male riders do, because the standard in the women's peloton did not justify a minimum salary, which he claimed was €60,000.
"I certainly and firmly believe in the potential of women's cycling, certainly don't get me wrong, only at the moment it is artificially pushed. Take, for example, the minimum wage: in the WorldTour, it's €60,000 on an annual basis, the same amount as the men's. That's not OK," Lefevere told Krant van West-Vlaanderen.
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"Again: don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge them, but there are riders who are not worth that amount at all. In the Tour [de France Femmes] last year, for example, they had to raise the time limit because otherwise, half the peloton would have arrived outside the time limit.
"Surely you don't pay someone who can't compete, €60,000? There are certainly riders who earn that amount, and some much more, but today the top in women's cycling is just not broad enough to justify that minimum wage."
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Lefevere's comments are based on inaccurate figures as the minimum wage for the women's World Tour is €32,102, the same as for ProContinental men's teams. The veteran manager was heavily criticised in 2021 for comments he made on women's cycling; remarks that angered sponsors Deceuninck, who have since parted company with him.
Lefevere stopped using social media for a period - as his public comments were causing problems - and though he has since got involved in women's cycling, he has now made comments likely to put him back in the middle of a sexism row.
In September, 2021, when asked if Deceuninck-QuickStep would set up a women’s team, Lefevere bemoaned the poor level attained by female riders in Belgium. He suggested they would need to become cyclists before he would consider setting up a team and paying them.
In remarks that revealed how little he knew about women’s cycling, he named some races where he incorrectly claimed Belgian women couldn’t even stay in the reduced peloton.
“If a group of 50 rides away in De Panne and there are (no Belgian women) there… With all due respect, but I’m not the OCMW either, hey,” he said – the OCMW being Belgium’s network of social welfare offices.
The race he was referring to was Brugge-De Panne. Far from no Belgian women being able to hold their own the front group of 50, there were six Belgian women in the top 50 including Jolien d’Hoore (SD Worx) who finished 3rd and Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing) who took 4th place. Since then, Belgian Kopecky was won Strade Bianche Donne, Tour of Flanders and been 2nd on the road race at the Worlds.
