Sir Dave Brailsford, team Sky boss, has just launched a scathing attack on David Lappartient and he seems to have taken the case a bit too serious.
Brailsford has strongly criticized the UCI president saying that Lappartient continues to have the wrong mentality of a local French major who is constantly struggling to control and manage his responsibilities.
According to Brailsford, the UCI president has made him ans the team very frustrated after the way he managed the anti-doping investigation into Sky’s main rider, Chris Froome, which was finally closed only a week ago after some long months….
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The four-time Tour de France champion was cleared of any wrongdoing after his adverse analytical founding when he returned a test which contained more than the allowed level of Salbutamol during last season’s Vuelta.
Unable to do the job right?
According to Lappartient, Froome’s case should have remained private unless a charge was brought and he should have not takem part in any cycling event after the news broke in December 2017.
However, since Froome’s case was only closed last Monday, the UCI president has contradicted the official UCI statement regarding the fact that more information on the case might be published suggesting to BBC Sport that the only reason team Sky were able to defend Froome and allow him to race was because they have quite a big budget, especially when compared to the other teams.
Apparently, this statement made Team Sky’s boss furious and wonder if Lappartient is able to understand his job and responsibilities properly.
“I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he started. He’s new to the job and he obviously doesn’t quite understand the responsibilities of a presidential role. I think he’s still got the kind of local french mayor kind of mentality maybe,” Brailsford said.
“It would be better if he was clearer. He’s contradicted himself a few times in some of the things he’s saying. One minute it’s we [the UCI] can release stuff and the next minute we can’t,” he added.
Brailsford also added that the UCI president should protect everyone in the cycling community and not take any nationalistic point of view.
“If you want to be the president of an international federation, protect everyone in that community,” Brailsford said. Protect the international community with no bias. And I think he’s still learning that really. And the quicker he learns what the president of an international federation’s responsibilities are the better it will be for everybody. But he’s got some work to do,” he added.
