Having openly discussed replacing Sam Bennett with Mark Cavendish for the Tour de France while the Irishman was still trying to overcome a knee injury, Deceuninck-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere has now criticised the Irish sprinter in the Belgian media.
Lefevere has bizarrely questioned if Bennett is missing the Tour because of “performance anxiety” rather than because of his knee injury and related pain. This is despite the Irishman’s success for the team this season and last year, when he won the Tour points classification and two stages.
Today the team confirmed Bennett would not ride the Tour de France. The Irish sprinter himself said while he and the team believed he would be recovered in time to ride, he had run out of time to be ready for the race.
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As a result, it was decided he would not ride the Tour and that Cavendish would come into the team instead. Lefevere said he had built the whole Tour team around Bennett – aside from the free role given to world champion Julian Alaphilippe – and has now vented his feelings in public about Bennett missing the Tour.
"Three days before the Tour of Belgium, he bumped his knee against his
handlebars,” Lefevere said of Bennett in an interview with Sporza.
“He didn't tell us anything about that. When he arrived (to start the Tour
of Belgium), we sent him home again. Then it was a yes-no game: to train or not
to train?"
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Lefevere also spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws and while it is perhaps
to be expected he is annoyed Bennett cannot ride the Tour, his remarks seem
extraordinary, especially considering Bennett’s record while riding for the
team.
The team boss, who founded what is now Deceuninck-QuickStep in 2002, said when he first heard news of Bennett’s injury, he was concerned he would not be able to ride the Tour and that Bennett had been told to go home to Monaco, where he lives, and rest.
“We had asked him to rest. Behind our backs, he turns out to have gone to a
physiotherapist in Monaco, who said he could train better,” Lefevere said.
He added Bennett was then due to fly from Monaco to Belgium yesterday to join the team. Once in Belgium, Bennett (30) was due to travel on to the Tour with the team. But Lefevere said problems had emerged with the Irishman’s journey to Belgium.
“First we were told that his flight was delayed. Then there was talk of
overbooking. And then it is precisely Bennett who no longer gets a seat on the
plane. I am not suspicious by nature, but then I start to ask myself
questions,” Lefevere said.
He then suggested he had paid an advance on “fines” for Bennett so he could leave Bora-hansgrohe two years ago. He then added he had done a lot for the Irishman and that “this is not a story with a happy ending”.
Lefevere went on to claim he had known for months Bennett was going to Ineos Grenadiers and that Deceuninck-QuickStep was going to take him to the Tour anyway. However, just weeks ago Lefevere also suggested Bennett may be going back to Bora-hansgrohe.
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