Deceuninck-QuickStep team boss, Patrick Lefevere, has hit a new low, even by his own standards, when discussing Sam Bennett, whom he has criticised repeatedly in recent months.
It now looks increasingly likely that
Bennett has ridden his last race for the team, or will only ride a small number
of races in the months ahead, as he is not earmarked for La Vuelta.
Today, in his latest column for Het Nieuwsblad, Lefevere has likened Sam Bennett’s anticipated move back to Bora-hansgrohe to a woman going back into a home where she has suffered domestic violence.
In what are simply astonishing comments, the Belgian team boss also described Bennett – the most successful sprinter in the world in recent years - as the “height of mental weakness”.
In his column he critiqued how mentally strong, or otherwise, he regarded the riders he has managed down the years, leaving Bennett to last and even speaking publicly about riders who are now dead.
Advertisement
“Last but not least, you also have Sam Bennett. For me the height of mental weakness,” Lefevere writes in his column.
“Leaving Bora-Hansgrohe and telling everyone that he was being bullied and almost depressed and bankrupt, only to return fourteen months later. It is the same as women who still returns home after domestic violence.”
Related News
He then also
cast his eye over other riders he currently manages, or has managed in recent
years; all in the context of discussing the US gymnast Simone Biles and her
decision to step back at the Olympic Games to safeguard her mental health.
Incredibly Lefevere seemed sympathetic towards her, saying it was “human nature” for people to sometimes “break” under extreme pressure. But in the next breath he makes cutting remarks about what he saw as riders’ state of mind, their mental strength or their weaknesses as people.
Marcel Kittel, he said, had a “tendency to
quickly end up in mental dips, which is why he no longer races”. He said Jan
Tratnik, who put in an epic ride at the Olympics, was at times sharp when he
rode for him and then just weeks later he was “five kilograms too thick (heavy)”.
“He was looking for an outlet, and that
was food. On the verge of bulimia, but what should you say to such a
21-year-old boy?” said Lefevere of Tratnik.
He also revealed that Frank Vandenbroucke,
who is now dead, was “first to ask for a psychologist”. Then Lefevere referred
to another deceased rider Wouter Weylandt, saying he “struggled with his
self-image”.
He described one of his current riders, Rémi Cavagna, as “not the nervous type… but he sometimes suffers from stress”. Tim Declercq was “a super smart guy, but he chokes when he is allowed to drive for his own success”.
The references to domestic violence are especially hard to digest. They are not only distasteful as they relate to Bennett, they are also very disrespectful to victims to domestic violence and Lefevere is likely to be criticised for his choice of words.
Topics
