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Patrick Lefevere says Sam Bennett returning to Bora is like 'women who return home after domestic abuse'

"For me, he is the pinnacle of mental weakness".....

Deceuninck-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere has said that Sam Bennett returning to Bora-Hansgrohe is like a 'woman who still returns home after domestic abuse'.

The 66-year-old made the astonishing comments in his latest column in Het Nieuwsblad.

The appalling remarks were made as Lefevere compared the mental fortitude of a number of riders he had worked with in the past, to those in his line up today. 

Bennett, 30,  has raced on Lefevere’s team for the last two seasons and the Irish sprinter won the Tour de France Green jersey in 2020.

However, a knee injury left him unable to race at this years' Tour and at the time Lefevere seemed to cast doubt on whether Bennett's problem was genuine, claiming, 'I'm starting to think more and more that it's more fear of failure than just pain.'

It is likely that Bora-Hansgrohe will announce Bennett’s arrival in the next few weeks.

Writing in his column this week, Lefevere said: “I’ve never had mentally unstable riders in my team, but there were definitely ‘special ones’. Rémi Cavagna is not a nervous guy - his hobby is fishing - but sometimes stress gets to him.

"Some people say that Remco Evenepoel can’t handle a bike, but at the beginning, Rémi was afraid to even take a bottle or even raise his hands when he won.

"It’s all between the ears. Tim Declercq is a really intelligent guy, but he ‘choked’ when he has to ride for himself."

Lefevere then claimed Bennett is the 'pinnacle of mental weakness' following the Irishman's decision to return to Bora-Hansgrohe next year.

He continued: “Last but not least there is Sam Bennett. For me he’s the pinnacle of mental weakness.

“Leaving Bora and telling everybody about how he was ‘bullied’ and almost depressed and bankrupt but then to return fourteen months later. It’s the same as women who still return home after domestic abuse."

The Belgian made the comments in the same week that Simone Biles announced her decision to withdraw from the gymnastics at the Olympics so she could focus on her mental health. 

It also follows the return, and subsequent success of Tom Dumoulin in the men's time trial after he took time out from the sport to recalibrate. 

> Primoz Roglic storms to stunning TT gold winning by more than a minute as Tom Dumoulin takes silver ahead of Rohan Dennis in third

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11 comments

Avatar
PRSboy | 2 years ago
1 like

Its odd, as the comments he made when interviewed about why he'd taken Cav back seemed very empathetic.

 

Avatar
peted76 | 2 years ago
0 likes

Patrick Lefevere gives no fucks..  it seems to me that a coupe of times a year he makes stupid out of touch comments and believes he's unreproachable.

.... I also believe he probably is unreproachable, as in, he's made Belgium (a country literally split into two) into a cycling superpower. 

He's a rare cycling dinosaur.. I vote we stuff him and put him in the Oudenaarde  Flanders museum. 

Avatar
Ihatecheese | 2 years ago
2 likes

A tale of how someone can lose touch with decency and reality when laser focused on their own objectives. It is time for this guy to reflect, retract, consider his attitude and perhaps step back. Fool. 

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EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
1 like

He just can't seem to help himself.

Why does he need to even write a newspaper column? He can't need the money. Why does he need to say these things, he can't be this unself aware. Don't his sponsors ever speak up? He comes across as a spoilt child

Avatar
mike the bike replied to EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
3 likes

Not really a spoilt child.  More like an ex-professional rider, cancer survivor, popular leader and, incidentally, the most successful cycling manager in history.

You don't get to do all that without knowing a thing or two and also being an astute judge of human character.  Blunt, yes.  Opinionated, yes.  Wrong sometimes, of course.  But brilliant all the way through.

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Captain Badger replied to mike the bike | 2 years ago
3 likes
mike the bike wrote:

...  But brilliant all the way through.

Except of course when making light of the deep trauma and social stigma faced by domestic abuse survivors

Lefevere wrote:

.....peak of mental weakness.

....like the woman who returns home after domestic abuse.*

*abridged whilst retaining context, to highlight the foulness of what he said

That is at best a pretty crass statement which exposes some disgusting opinions on a matter he clearly knows nothing about (I hope...).

Avatar
Blackthorne replied to Captain Badger | 2 years ago
4 likes

FFS. Are we reading the same thing? It is a metaphor, not a commentary on domestic abuse  

Again, public figure makes one comment. Internet blows it out of context and proportion, ties it to current social events, and he gets canceled. His life contributions and reputation over. Forced to apologize for nothing. Internet moves on feeling superior. 

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to Blackthorne | 2 years ago
2 likes
Blackthorne wrote:

FFS. Are we reading the same thing? It is a metaphor, not a commentary on domestic abuse  

Again, public figure makes one comment. Internet blows it out of context and proportion, ties it to current social events, and he gets canceled. His life contributions and reputation over. Forced to apologize for nothing. Internet moves on feeling superior. 

Oh yes, it was clearly a metaphor. One that used his contempt for victims of abuse to draw a parallel with his contempt for this particular individual for the (unsubstantiated) sin of suffering from mental stress.

He might not have intended to express his opinions on the plight of the victims of domestic violence, or for that matter folk suffering from stress and mental illness, however he still managed to do so, in a pretty despicable way.

Reputation? Clearly in your mind it remains untarnished, which of course is fine. In many people's however his comments are highly illuminating. This is also valid.

Words matter. This wasn't "a moment of madness" (not attributing that to you), or momentary slip. It was a thought out opinion piece. it seems to me that if his analogy can be taken at face value, he believes that domestic violence victims (and by extension sufferers of mental illness) are actually guilty of "mental weakness" (whatever the fack that is...). If that wasn't his intended meaning, why the fack make such a wildly crass and inappropriate comparison? Mistake? one would have thought that someone of his standing and quality would be skilled enough to avoid such idiocy. If not, perhaps it is just as well that he keeps his opinions to himself in future.

 

Avatar
SaintClarence27 replied to Blackthorne | 2 years ago
1 like
Blackthorne wrote:

FFS. Are we reading the same thing? It is a metaphor, not a commentary on domestic abuse  

Again, public figure makes one comment. Internet blows it out of context and proportion, ties it to current social events, and he gets canceled. His life contributions and reputation over. Forced to apologize for nothing. Internet moves on feeling superior. 

Is this really the side you want to take on this?

Avatar
Jimmy Ray Will replied to SaintClarence27 | 2 years ago
1 like

Black / White, right / wrong... nothing in between. Why does it always have to be about sides?

***general comment on society as a whole, not so much pointed at any one individual***

Different people will take different things from PL's comments... everyone's perceptions are valid (certainly to themselves)... no one however, apart from  PL himself, can categorically state his true meaning. All the projection applied to his comments is, quite frankly, ridiculous. 

Personally speaking, PL perplexes me. On one side, here is this man, seemingly dissecting his riders mental state in public, making snide, unnecessary comments about SB... basically being a true git... yet still, he is responsible for one of the best team's in cycling, a team that is revered not only for its sporting performances but for its genuine camaraderie... 

My take on that, is that whilst many call PL a dinosaur, I believe he is actually a very contemporary talisman of the attitudes sitting behind a lot of modern sporting success. The fact that these attitudes are seemingly so far from acceptable to so many, probably says as much about the state of elite sport as PL himself.  

Avatar
Simon E replied to mike the bike | 2 years ago
4 likes
mike the bike wrote:

brilliant all the way through.

I'm afraid I cannot comprehend how in 2021 anyone can think that Levefere's comments are anything but appalling. It's blatantly obvious that what he is doing is a form of abuse.

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