Former pro cyclists showering between car doors arrested for “indecent” and “gay” behaviour while training for Unbound Gravel in Oklahoma

A tornado, a levelled department store, some Mexican food, a cold shower in a car park that offended “rednecks”, followed by a startling arrest for “indecent” and “gay” behaviour — no one could have predicted how former Dutch pro cyclists Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker’s training ride in Oklahoma before the Unbound Gravel would shape up.

The duo had flown to the southern US state a couple of days ahead of the popular gravel race in the neighbouring state of Kansas to train, however, their training had to be cut short and instead they ended up in handcuffs and spent a night in prison, because of this ostensibly bizarre turn of events.

In the latest episode of their LiveSlowRideFast podcast and as reported by Wielerflits, Ten Dam, who previously rode for Belkin Pro Cycling (now Visma-Lease a Bike) and Dekker, who won the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie in 2006 and 2007 respectively, said that the incident took place in the town of Marietta, Oklahoma.

After completing a three-hour ride, the two drove to a supermarket and a nearby department store as part of their planned stopover to grab some food and get a change of clothes. However, the place had been struck by a tornado a few days before, and on reaching there, they found that both the facilties had “just disappeared”.

> Unbound Gravel 2024 - conclusions and takeaways

They decided on a change of plans. “We would then go for lunch at a Mexican store. We had a three-hour training ride behind us and were now quite hungry,” Ten Dam said in the podcast. “It was half past two in the afternoon. I just wanted to take a little cold shower and so, Thomas threw that water over me.

“We stood between the car doors, taking a shower. After Thomas washed me off, I quickly swapped my pants. But while I'm doing that, I hear a very angry person screaming across the street… we just wanted to freshen ourselves before some Mexican.”

“Suddenly there were five police cars. That man who had yelled at us also stood there and said: ‘for this you have to go to prison’. It was actually a typical redneck. They got Thomas first, he was searched and then got handcuffed. So I thought: shit. Then I also had to turn around and I was also cuffed.”

Dekker added: “I didn’t dare to do anything. I had five pistols pointed at me, even though those people had an IQ of a shrimp.”

 

 

 

 

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Ten Dam, dubbed as the ‘master of chin dribble’ for his spit-filled beard during races, tried to deescalate the situation, but to no avail. “I thought, I might be able to offer a response, but these people didn't listen to that,” he said.

And just like that, Dekker and Ten Dam were handcuffed, searched and then they were taken to a nearby jail. The two said they had been arrested under ‘inappropriate behaviour in public spaces’ legislation’.

Dekker said: “I think it was a place of four by four, without windows and with an iron toilet. A small sink, that was it. We still got something to eat, under a blanket, because we were cold by now. It all took a very long time and fingerprints were taken. We also had to put on an orange suit, we were really inmate Laurens and inmate Thomas.”

Ten Dam added that the indictment said that “we sprayed each other with water bottles like two gay cyclists.”

Following nine hours overnight in the police cell, the pair were finally released after paying bail charges of $185, and were free to continue onto the Unbound Gravel race, where Dekker subsequently finished 42nd and Ten Dam 50th. On the bright side, they confirmed that they wouldn’t face any prosecution or have to return to court in the USA over any potential charges.

In other news from this year's Unbound Gravel, the gravel world champion Matej Mohorič and his Bahrain Victorious teammates travelled home from Kansas with stories to tell (and bikes to clean) after a weekend of mechanicals and mud that'll be all too familiar for any of you here in the UK who dare to venture away from paved routes at any time of the year except the peak of summer.

> "We're going to stick to road racing!": Matej Mohorič gets stuck in the mud at Unbound Gravel, suffers cracked rim and puncture

The Slovenian and his teammates Matevž Govekar and Lukas Wiśniowski were in trouble from the recon, a video uploaded to Instagram showing the team struggling to get to grips with the famous Kansas mud, Govekar seen resorting to scraping his new wider tyres 'clean' with some sort of stake or sign, claggy mud filling whatever tyre clearance he had moments earlier.

"We are going to stick to road racing, guys," Mohorič joked in a video uploaded to Instagram by the event's organisers. "It's a beautiful day for cycling, beautiful weather, not so beautiful surface, could be more smooth. It's pretty rocky and my sidewall doesn't like it, but hopefully the second tube of the day will hold even though I cracked my rim hitting a rock