“If he has a strange look in his eyes”; Lefevere joins debate around Wiebes and Van Schip

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the UCI and the way it applies and enforces its regulations. There was the case involving Lorena Wiebes at the Giro d’Italia Women, Jan-Willem van Schip was removed from a race once again, and several teams at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes were handed heavy fines.

Patrick Lefevere has devoted his weekly column in Het Nieuwsblad to that run of incidents. In typical Lefevere style, he began with a pointed question: “Something I asked myself this week: what does the UCI do with its pot of fine money? Who manages all that cash? Does it flow back into cycling, or do they go out for a good meal in Aigle with it? Investing in Swiss real estate is another option, because the sums really are no longer normal.”

“I can imagine that a team like UAE Team Emirates might shrug off such an amount, but for the ‘smaller teams’ it hurts,” the Belgian continued. “The individual riders or sports directors receive the fines, but the teams pay them. That was the case ‘in my time’ at Soudal-Quick Step and I assume it is the same elsewhere. Paying UCI fines for a whole year weighs on a budget. The Swiss franc has not exactly become weaker in recent years either.”

According to Lefevere, the UCI’s message over the past few weeks has been impossible to miss. “Big Brother is watching you. Lorena Wiebes’ bike twenty grams too heavy? Out of the race. Jan-Willem van Schip has a strange stem, a strange position on the bike or a strange look in his eyes? Out of the race. Even if the gendarmerie has to box him in. And for everything else: fines, fines, fines,” he wrote.

Lefevere himself was chairman of the AIGCP, the association representing professional cycling teams, for some time. “During my AIGCP years, I was often the whipping boy, but nobody could accuse me of not standing on the barricades. And that is exactly what I miss now. Brent Copeland really wanted to be AIGCP president and was the first to criticise all his predecessors, but what has he actually changed for the better? When do you hear from him?”

“We have had one safety issue after another this year: barriers with feet, corners fifty metres from the finish line. And then I read an interview with Copeland on Cyclingnews with the headline ‘Safety is everyone’s responsibility.’ Even CD&V no longer uses such empty phrases. The message the teams should be sending is: ‘we will not accept this.’ SafeR started with the teams, but in the meantime ASO and the UCI have completely pulled it towards themselves.”

Lefevere closed his column in Het Nieuwsblad with one final jab. “I absolutely do not want to return to the AIGCP, but even if I say so myself: the teams could really use someone with my tact — or rather, my lack of it.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]