Omega Pharma-Quick Step sport director Brian Holm has been cleared by a Danish court of indecent exposure after he was alleged to have attempted to have sex with a seven-year-old girl.
Holm, aged 51, waived his right to anonymity in the case in May after media in his native Denmark reported that a famous sporting figure had been charged with having sex with a child aged below 12 years, which carries a penalty of up to 12 years in jail.
CPH Post reports that a court in Frederiksberg has ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove that Holm had tried to take off the girl’s underwear in an incident alleged to have happened at his home between 3am and 5am on 26 April.
As a rider at Telekom, Holm helped fellow Dane Bjarne Riis win the Tour de France in 1996, and he later went into management with the German team, subsequently renamed T-Mobile.
More recently, he has acted as a mentor to Mark Cavendish, initially as sport director at T-Mobile which Cavendish joined in 2007 and which evolved into Team Colombia.
The pair were reunited when the Manxman joined Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 2013 after spending the previous season with Sky.
Simon has been news editor at road.cc since 2009, reporting on 10 editions and counting of pro cycling’s biggest races such as the Tour de France, stories on issues including infrastructure and campaigning, and interviewing some of the biggest names in cycling. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, his background has proved invaluable in reporting on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, and the bike industry. He splits his time between London and Cambridge, and loves taking his miniature schnauzer Elodie on adventures in the basket of her Elephant Bike.