The Deceuninck – Quick-Step team have released a statement in relation to the investigation into an incident following Remco Evenepoel’s recent crash at the Il Lombardia.
Following on from his crash over a bridge at the Italian race where he suffered a broken pelvis amongst other injuries, video footage posted on Twitter showed his directeur sportif Davide Bramati removing something from Evenepoel’s back pocket as he lay on the ground but it was unclear what had been removed. The team have now said that the object was a small bottle containing nutrition products.
The release of the statement follows on from news yesterday that the UCI had reportedly opened an investigation into the incident. Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reported that the UCI had requested the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) to investigate the incident.
“We’ve asked CADF to further investigate the television images and question witnesses about the object that came out of Evenepoel’s pocket,” UCI president David Lappartient said on Friday.
The statement from Deceuninck – Quick-Step is as follows:
We would like to clarify that we have been contacted by CADF earlier this week to discuss the incident surrounding Remco Evenepoel’s crash at Il Lombardia earlier this month.
As has already been stated publicly, the item that was captured being removed from Remco’s pockets was a small bottle containing nutrition products and was removed in order to help him to be placed more comfortably by medical staff on the stretcher. We have reiterated this to CADF and we will continue to cooperate with their enquires if needed.
With regards to the transmission of data, we would also like to clarify that data such as live location is transmitted by the Velon device that was installed on bikes during Il Lombardia by Velon in partnership with the race organiser. The devices allow everyone, including the fans, to track and see rider data live in the race.
We are confident that this will put an end to any further speculation surrounding the incident.
