New controversy for the Lotto Dstny team
Carl Roes was suspended on Tuesday following an incident on Sunday during the U23 race at GP Rik Van Looy. The sporting director of the Belgian team Lotto Dstny led by Stéphane Heulot hit a marshal at the wheel of the support car who had prohibited him from entering the course.
Clearly, the Lotto Dstny team is not only talked about for its racing performances. Before the start of the last Tour de France, the Australian Allan Davies, one of the sporting directors of the Belgian team, who was to be part of this Grande Boucle, was removed at the last moment for unwanted messages sent on Twitter to a woman . “Allan will not be on the Tour de France so as not to mix personal matters with team matters,” Lotto Dstny communicated after parting ways with Davies.
This Tuesday, it was another incident, on the road and not on social networks this time, which led the team led by Frenchman Stéphane Heulot to suspend another of its sports directors: Carlo Roes. The latter was sanctioned following a serious incident that occurred during the U23 GP Rik Van Looy race, scheduled for last Sunday in Belgium. It all started with a conversation between a flagger who had just prohibited Roes, driving the assistance vehicle at the back of the peloton in a line of cars, from immediately entering the course.
Heulot: “There is no excuse for such behavior”
A ban which the sporting director of Lotto Dstny did not take into account, who still tried to get involved and collided with the switchman in question. “A very regrettable and unacceptable incident”, in the eyes of Heulot, who did not hesitate to suspend the culprit. “As soon as we heard the news, we suspended the team leader. There is no excuse for such behavior, it simply should not happen during a race. We would also like to apologize to the flagger and the organization. »
Suspended, the former Belgian runner, whom the press of his country describes as “particularly affected” by this incident, nevertheless took care to apologize to this man he knocked down and to check on him. “Carl realizes that he made a mistake (…) He has already spoken to the flagger and apologized. We take this matter very seriously and are now considering other measures,” added Heulot, to whom his sports directors definitely give a lot of work.
