QuickStep Alpha Vinyl team boss Patrick Lefevere has said the French cycling federation "made a mess of it" as they prepared for the World Championships in Australia.
He was annoyed that one of his riders was pressured to travel to Australia early only to be sent home shortly after arrival. Furthermore, he said his team's personnel had to step in and resolve problems when the French federation did not put arrangements in place for rider luggage on the way to the Worlds.
Lefevere's main source of annoyance - expressed in his weekly column in Het Nieuwsblad - was around the treatment of his rider Rémi Cavagna. He said the French federation initially pressured Cavagna to travel to Australia straight from the end of the Vuelta on the day the Spanish Grand Tour ended.
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This, Lefevere said, did not suit Cavagna as he wanted to be part of the celebration of his team mate Remco Evenepoel's overall win at La Vuelta. When Cavagna was eventually allowed to delay his departure until Monday, the day after the Vuelta, the French federation had made no reservation for his luggage.
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Geert Van Bondt, QuickStep Alpha Vinyl's sports director, had to walk through the airport and pick up Cavagna's bike and suitcase, almost missing his own flight home in the process. The luggage was then sent by QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl to Tubize in Belgium so the Belgian federation could pick it up.
“You notice it more often at the major overseas World Championships: federations do not have the logistics involved in their grasp," Lefevere said, adding trade teams often had to step in and plug the gaps left by the national governing bodies.
However, Lefevere then said after arriving in Australia Cavagna was sent home because the French federation decided at the last moment to select Benoît Cosnefroy after he won Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec two weeks ago. The late selection of Cosnefroy meant Cavagna lost his place in the Worlds team and he was sent home.
“Twelve of our riders will be at the start of the World Cup on Sunday, the most of all World Tour teams. It should have been thirteen, but the French national coach Thomas Voeckler called up Benoît Cosnefroy at the eleventh hour and sent our Rémi Cavagna home," said Lefevere.
“You can guess what happened there. Cosnefroy – a strong character , let me tell you – will have wanted a role as co-leader at the World Championships after Québec; a status that Voeckler would not have given him at first, but will eventually give him. So suddenly one rider was too much and Cavagna had to make way. With permission: the French federation has made a mess of it in the run-up to the World Championships."
